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THE CONFEDERATE SOLDIER 



AND 



TEN YEARS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



BY 

J. M. POLK, 

AUSTIN, TEXAS, 

A. D. 19t0, 



Price 35 cents. By Mail 40 cents in Advonce* 



PRKSS OP 

VON BOKCKMANN JONKS OOMPANT 

AUSTIN. TEXAS 





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J. M. POLK, 
Austin, Texas. 



THE CONFEDERATE SOLDIER 



AND 



TEN YEARS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



BY 

J. M. POLK, 

AUSTIN, TEXAS, 

A. D. 1910. 



PRESS OF 

TON BOKCKMANN JONKS COMPANY 

AUSTIN TEXAS 






COPYRIGHT, 1910, 
BY 

J. M. POLK, 

AUSTIN, TEXAS. 



'A256987 



THE CONFEDERATE SOLDIER. 



To the Reader: 

By way of introduction, and before entering upon the subject of 
our title page, I will try to give you some idea of pioneer days. 
For in this work I shall undertake to give you a little variety as 
well as some facts of history and general information. I was born 
in Greene county, Missouri, five miles east of Springfield, on the 
7th of October, "1838. My father was a native of Maury county, 
Tennessee, born three miles from Columbia, ahout the year 1810. 
His father was born in Mecklenburg county, North Carolina, nine 
miles from Charlotte Courthouse, September 10, 1776. About the 
year 1843 or 1843 my father moved to Lawrence county, Missouri, 
and settled on or near the head of Honey creek, twelve miles south 
of Mount Vernon. Now, at that early date, a boy 5 or G years 
old, in a new country like this, must do something to attract notice. 
Too small to do any kind of work, my father, of course, paid little 
attention to me; I spent most of my time in the woods with my 
dogs, which I trained to track anybody or anything I put them 
after. Father had an old Irishman named Hagerty at work on 
the place, and he had to walk two iniles to his home every evening. 
I thought it would be fine sport to put my dogs on his trail and 
make him take a tree. The plan was no sooner thought of than it 
was tried. The second time I tried it my father heard of it and 
I received a first-class tanning. My next venture turned out nearly 
as bad. While in the woods one "day, I found two old oxen my 
father had turned out. I drove them down to the creek where there 
was a hornets' nest as large as a cow's head, hanging to a hazlenut 
bush not more than two feet from the ground. One of the oxen 
brushed against it, knocking it to the ground and then stepping 
on it. The enraged hornets" covered the oxen. They curled their 
tails and ran up the hill toward the field. In their frenzy they 
knocked down four or five panels of fence, and let tlie stock in the 
field. So I received a first-class tanning for that. The road lead- 
ing from our house across the creek to the field passed between a 
lake and a graveyard. The negi'oes always had some ghost story to 
tell when they passed the graveyard at night. To put up a job on 
them another boy and myself, I think it was George Butler, 
wrapped a sheet around a stump in the graveyard and concealed 
ourselves near by. The negroes came along talking and singing 
that night and were within five or six steps of the ghost before 
their attention was attracted to it. When they did see it they split 



the lake wide open. Father heard of it, but as a neighbor's boy was 
implicated, he only laughed about it. 

I can remember seeing a company of men on their way to the 
Mexican war in 1846. But I was not old enough to know what it 
meant. In 1849 my father moved to Phillips count}', Arkansas, but 
by brother and sister and myself were left at Springfield, Mo., to 
attend school. Going to school was too tame for me; I longed to 
be in the woods with my dogs. It was a mixed school, most of them 
girls. One day I killed a large snake and thought it would be a 
good joke to frighten the girls with it. I took it by the tail and 
tossed it in among the girls on the playground. A first-class 
tanning was my reward. Our teachers, Mr. and Mrs. Wm. M. 
Peck, later removed to Fairfield, Freestone count}^, Texas, where 
they lived and died. 

In the summer of 1849, as well as I remember, a heavy rain fell 
which put up all the branches and gullies. Uncle Berry's house was 
about a mile and a half distant. I wanted to show the kids how I 
could swim, so I jumped in and left them behind. When I reached 
uncle's house I found that two or three dollars worth of school 
books had been ruined. For this mother took a rope and tied me 
down to the bed post and gave me a good dressing with the carriage 
whip. This is a fair sample of some of the difiicuiiios I managed 
to get into, and I shall just leave the matter for some one else 
to decide whether or not I was treated right in my raising. 

In 1851 we left Springfield in a two-horse wagon for St. Louis. 
There were no railroads in the country then. At St. Louis we 
stopped at a hotel. We boarded the first steamboat for Walnut 
Bend, Arkansas — the "Bunker Hill" No. 3 — and roached home. 
Father thought the best way to settle me and to teach me the 
worth of a dollar was to put me to picking cotton. In 1854 and 
'55 brother and I attended school at Batesville, Arkansas. We 
boarded with Elisha Baxter. There we found as gay a set of boys 
as we had ever met: John and Jim Eeed, Marion Hulsey, John 
Lanieve, Oris Miller, Clay Robinson, Marsh Eogers. Lucius Gaines, 
Jim Mulligan, Charley Stone. Barney Clark and Barlow Hodges, 
besides oihers whose names I have forgotten. Chrislmas came and 
with it the time for l)uilding stake and rider fences across the 
streets, swinging buggies up in the tree tops, and turning all the 
signboards in town upside down. My part of the job was to take 
down an old fellow's "Gingercake" sign and put in up in front 
of Parson Cole's door. The results had the appearance for a while 
of breaking up the school, but we managed to lay it all off on Santa 
Clans. About the month of July, 1855, we returned home. 

Wliile I was at home the duel between Tom Hindman. Pat Cle- 
burne, Rice and Merritt was fought on the streets of Helena. 
Merritt was killed and Hindman and Cleburne wounded. I think 



this Avas in the summer of 1856. It grew out of some trouhle Eice 
and Hindman had. Cleburne was in company with Hindman, and 
thus became involved. Merritt was a brother-in-law of Rice's and 
was there on a visit from Alabama. In 1857 we nil went to New 
Castle, Tennessee, to school, and 0. F. Strahl, a luitive of Ohio^ 
v/as our teacher. At the opening of the Civil War he enlisted in 
the Confederate Army and was killed at the battle of Franklin, at 
the same time that Pat Cleburne, John Marsh, Bruce Rogers, and a 
gieat many others whom I knew were lost. 

I came to Texas in 1859 and settled in Navarro county. Bought 
me a horse, bridle and saddle and started for Bosque county, which 
was just organized; stopped at Meridian, and from there started for 
Barry's ranch ten miles north, but took the wrong road and went 
west. Night overtook me. Indians were troublesome in the coun- 
try then. Finally I found an old fellow camped, who had been to 
Dyer's Mill on the Brazos and was on his way home. I told him 
that I was lost and would like to stop with him till morning. "All 
right," he said, "plenty of room at this hotel." He soon saw that 
I was young and green and he commenced asking me questions 
about where I was from. I told him that I was from Memphis, or 
near there. "How near?" he says. "Well, we lived over on the 
Askansaw side." "Well, what was your name before you left 
Arkansaw ?" Well, that confused me and I didn't know what to 
say, so that night seemed to be about twenty-four hours long to me. 
I was anxious to get away from that old fellow, for he had me 
'Tiaeked." Next morning he was driving up his oxen to hitch to his 
wagon. I took out my pocketbook and asked him how much I owed 
him for the trouble. "Well," lie said, "if you were from Memphis 
I would charge you about ten dollars, but as you are f r(^m Arkansaw 
I don't believe I will charge you anything." 

Harvey Matthews tells me of another noted character of early 
days in Texas, George Porter, a native of Alabama. He became in- 
volved in that country and he saw no way out of it except to die, 
so he had the news circulated all over the country that he was dead. 
He had an old hickory stick put into a coffin in the house and the 
people all came in held a great ceremony over it and buried it. 
When this was done he started for Texas. He undertook to build a 
mill on the Trinity river, which place still bears the name of 
Porter's Bluff ; went to New Orleans and contracted for machinery, 
and on his way back he took the yellow fever at Shreveport and died 
again. Next and last that was heard of him he was in California, 
where he became involved and died again. 

I enlisted in the Confederate army at Corsicana, Texas, in July, 
1861, as a private in Captain C. M. Winkler's company. President 
Davis had called upon the Governor of Texas for twenty companies 
of infantry to go to Virginia, and I was selected by the company to 



— 6— 

go to Austin and have this company received. I succeeded and 
made the trip in due time. On my return, about the 18th of July, 
1 found them encamped near the old Battle Creek Church, near 
where the town of Dawson now stands. On the 19th we started for 
Houston. We were Jiiustered in at Harrisburg the following Au- 
gust. From there we proceeded to New Orleans via Beaumont, 
Niblett's Bluff, and New Iberia, La, We reached Richmond, Va., 
without much delay, but our losses in the winter of 1861 from sick- 
ness and exposure, incident to camp life, were very heavy. I had 
the measles; had a relapse and developed a case of typhoid-pneu- 
monia, and my fate was uncertain for about six weeks. For ten or 
twelve days I did not eat a mouthful of anything. Mrs. Oliver, a 
citizen of Eichraond, had me removed to her house, and, by close 
attention, managed to pull me through. Had it not been for this 
woman my bones would have been in the sod of old Virginia today. 

By the time I recovered, the three Texas regiments had lost so 
many men that it was necessary to send back to Texas for recruits, 
and Captain Winkler and myself and Tom Morris were sent on 
that mission for our company on our return to Virginia. I recall 
meeting General Sam Houston in the barber shop of the Fannin 
House in Houston. It was in April, 1863. He was on crutches, 
dressed in a long, loose sack coat, broad-brimmed hat, coonskin 
vest, and wore the largest gold ring I ever saw on a man's finger. 
He looked at me a few minutes and said, "Well, young man, I 
suppose you are off for the war ?" "Yes, sir," I answered. "Well," 
said he, "I am too old now to be of any service to my count^}^ 
Texas people refuse to take my counsel. I can do them no good, 
and God knows I do not wish to do them any harm. But I do not 
think that our cause will justify the loss of so much life and prop- 
erty. It's American against American. But if I was young and 
able to do anything, and they refused to go my way, I might go 
witli tliom." Tie tlion made some sarcastic remarks about I;(>uis T. 
Wigfall and others of his enemies, calling the former Mr. Wiggle- 
tail, and finished up by saying something about our relatives and 
friends in Tennessee which he knew. But after all that has been 
said about Sam Houston, he was one of our public men who was 
not overrated. Like all other liuman beings, he had his faults, but 
ho had more merits than faults, more good traits than bad traits. 

We reached the army in Virginia in May, just before the battle 
of Seven Pines, which wa.s my first introduction and gave me my 
first impressions of the horrors of war. No man can form any idea 
of them unless he has been in one and took part in it. I realized 
that if we accomplished what we set out to do it would be a dearly 
bought victory. Nevertheless. T had just about made up my mind 
to stay there as long as T was able. Heavy rains liad put up all the 
creeks, and thus cut off part of the Federal army from the main 



-7— 



body. But the part cut off was more than we could handle con- 
veDJently. We found them fortified, breastworks thrown up, with 
heavy guns mounted and in front of this abattis work, that is, trees 
were cut down, limbs and tops sharpened and turned towards us, 
and most of the hard fighting and loss on both sides was caused 
by the Confederates attempting to flank this position. For some 
reason those heavy guns were not used. After the battle of Seven 
Pines, our next move (that is. Whiting's division) was to join 




Battle of Seven Pines, May 31, 1862. 

general Jackson in the valley of Virginia. We met him near 
' Staunton, Va. We were all ignorant then about discipline in the 
army and thought we had a right to know as much as the officers. 
But we soon found out different. General Whiting was an old 
army officer, and a good one, and he sMd to General Hood that he 
had no doubt but what those Texas men would make good soldiers, 
^^but you will have a hard time to get them down io army regula- 
tions." General Jackson was a good hand to execute and keep his 



own counsel, and about the first thing he did was to give us to 
understand that we must knoAV nothing but obey orders, and if any 
citizen on the march should ask you where you are going, "tell 
them you don't know." The next day he came along and noticed 
one of our men leaving ranks for a cherry tree. Cherries were get- 
ting ripe. "Where are you going?" asked the general. "I don't 
know, sir." "What regiment do you belong to?" "I don't know 
sir." "What do you know?" "I know General Jackson said 
we must not know anything till after the fight's over." "Is that 
all you know ?" "I know I want to go to that cherry tree," "Well, 
go on." The next day he came along, and one of our men says 
to him : "General, where are we going ?" He turned around and 
looked at him a few minutes and said : "Are you a good hand to 
keep a secret?" "Yes, sir." "Well, so am I," and he rode on. 
Then it was a forced march to the rear of McClellan's army, which 
w^e reached about the 35th of June, and on the 27th of June, 1862, 
w^as fought the memorable battle of Gaines' Mill and the Seven 
Days' battle near Richiiiond. The whole country knows the result. 
At Gaines' Mill our regiment, the Fourth Texas, lost its colonel and 
lieutenant colonel, and the major was wounded, which left us with- 
out a field officer. It was reported that we had lost about three 
hundred killed and wounded. I was one of the wounded, but unless 
a man was killed on the field or lost a leg or an arm, it was only 
considered a furlough, so I got a furlough and I mJssed the second 
battle of Manassas by about three days and I never did regret it. I 
was wounded in the arm, and it swelled to about the size of a stove 
pipe, turned as ])lack as a pot, and the doctors thought for a while 
that it would have to be amputated. All the other regiments of the 
brigade and division lost heavily, but not so much as the Fourth 
Texas, because it seemed to me that we were right in front of the 
Federal batteries, supported by infantry. It was reported that our 
con;pany lost twenty-nine killed and wounded, but I can not re- 
member all their names. The first man killed in Winkler's com- 
pany w^as named Fondron, and his people lived in Young county, 
Texas. I was within five feet of him ; he dropped his gun and said, 
"Oh 1jOT(] !" and fell within about fifty steps of the battery. The 
first man killed in the regiment Avas Jim Smyley, from Eobertson 
county, Texas. We were then about twelve or fourteen hundred 
yards from the battery. He was struck by a shell. About that time 
General Hood gave the command. "Forward, guide center, march, 
give w'ay to the right, give way to the left ; watch your colors, men !" 
Now, that is the last command you hear in going into a hard- 
fought battle. Then it is every fellow for himself and the devil 
for all, and tlie man with the musket does the balance. We carried 
the position, but with heavy loss. Captain Hutchison, from Nav- 
asota, was killed on the field. Captain Ryan from Waco, Captain 



-9- 



Porier from Montgomery county, and Bob Lambert, from Austin, 
all died in the same room in Eichmond, and I suppose I am one of 
the last men that saw them alive, Eichmond was crowded with 
wounded men. I went down to the Chimberazo Hospital and found 
Jim Treadwell, Mat Beasley and I think Jim Shaw, all wounded. 
I secured a carriage and took them to the Catholic Hospital, where 
they received better attention, and all recovered. Jim Treadwell 
wa.s a great oddity. He was shot in the instep of the foot; he said 







r. 






4'^ 







Battle of Gaines' Mill, June 27, 1862. 

in all seriousness that he had just put on a new pair of shoes thai 
day and that the shot mined the shoe. Wlien Captain Winkler was 
entering his name on the muster roll, he asked Jim his native 
State. Jim said he was born in Cowita county, C-a., but that he 
stopped thirty-six years in Texas to fatten his horse, went to Cali- 
fornia in '■'49 and was a ranger on the frontier of TtJ.as for several 
years. I Avas informed that Dick Wade was badly wounded, but 
I could not learn where he was. I put in two days in search of him. 



—10— 



aiid finally found him in a box car in Manchester, opposite Rich- 
mond, from which place I took him to the Catholic Hospital. Dick 
died in Dallas, Texas, May 15, 1909; Mat Beasley in Xavarro 
county, Texas, and Jim Treadwell died in East Texas nine or ten 
years ago. 1 do not know what became of Jim Shaw ; it has been 
so long 1 have almost forgotten him. 

About the 1st of September, 1862, as well as I can remember, 
Jim Aston of Winkler's company and myself started out frorn 
Eichmond to overtake the army. When we reached Rapidan Sta- 
tion, as far as we could go on the railroad, we heard tliat there had 
been another fight at Manassas. The next day we started out on 
foot. We soon began to meet the sick, barefooted and wounded 
that could walk, and prisoners, some of the latter negroes. When 
we reached Warrenton I found Tom Morris and Bill Spence of our 
company in the hospital both mortally wounded. I gave them $10, 
all the money I had, and left them and never saw them again! 
Their people lived in Navarro county, Texas. We traveled to Lees- 
burg, then to Point of Rocks, on the Potomac, twelve miles, I think, 
and crossed it between midnight and day. The river was only 
about waist deep, and we had no trouble in reaching the other side. 
We had had nothing to eat for nearly two days, and we held a little 
consultation, as we were then in the State of Maryland and did not 
know how the people would treat us. We concluded to try some of 
the citizens for breakfast, so I started to a house about half a mile 
from the road and Jim followed along behind me. When I reached 
the house the woman came out and T asked her if she would give us 
some breakfast. I told her that we had had nothing to eat for two 
days and that we were hungry. She said to come in. We went 
into the kitchen and sat down at the table. She put oat the butter- 
milk, light bread, butter and coffee, and when we were done we 
thanked her; but when we started to leave we found that we were 
so heavily "loaded" that we could hardly walk. We traveled on, I 
don't remember the distance, but found General Lee's army near 
l^^ederick City, Md. We remained there two or three davs and 
then started in the direction of ITagerstown. Md. When we reached 
Boonsboro we had another fight. The next day we moved on and 
soon heard the cannonading at Harper's Ferrv, and when we 
reached Sharpsburg we heard that General Jackson had taken the 
pkce with ten thousand men and all the garrison. I could see 
General T^ee a short distance from the road. Ho was on foot, and 
Colonel Chilton, T think, wa,s with him. General Lee was a fine 
lookmg man, with iron-gray hair and the largest head I ever saw. 
He carried his arm in a sling, as it had been injured bv his horse 
falling with him at Manassas. The Federal armv w:is close behind 
us, and T could ,<ee from the movements that we would soon have 
anothei- bloody conflict. About that time the sergeant ordered me 



—11— 

to go back to the banks of the Antietam, on the picket line. I re- 
mained there all day and after dark returned to my command, 
which was located near the old Dunkard Church. 

The next morning a small amount of bacon and flour was issued; 
I was trying to cook some bread ; I took the ramrod out of my gun, 
wet up the flour without grease or salt, wrapped it around the 
ramrod, and was holding it over the fire when a sliell from one of 
the Federal batteries fell, bursting near me and breaking a man's 
leg. In less time than it takes to tell it we formed m line of battle, 
and the command was given to "forward." Our ranks were so re- 
duced that regiments looked like companies and brigades like regi- 
ments; and this was about the condition of General Tree's army on 
that day. I don't remember the date, but it was between the 12th 
and 20th of September, 1862. Some were in hospitals, sick or 
wounded; some discharged; some dead. The Federals must have 
had about three or four to our one, and it was as near a knock-down 
and drag-out as anything I have ever seen or heard of. The air 
was full of shot and shell and we were in an open field, with no 
protection, and it seemed almost impossible for a rat to live in 
such a place. The dead and dying were in every direction. I heard 
that the first Texas regiment lost nine color bearers and finally lost 
their colors. I didn't take time to load my gun, for their were 
plenty of loaded guns lying on the ground by the side of the dead 
and wounded men, and they were not all Confederates; the Blue 
and the Gray were all mixed up. The New Jersey men were in- 
front of us; this I found out the next day after Generals Lee and 
McClellan had agreed upon a cessation of hostilities in order to 
take care of the dead and wounded. I saw a great many men go 
in that day who never came out, but it has been so long that I do 
not remember their names, not even the members of my own com- 
pany. 1 saw Milt Garner go in, but never saw him again. He was 
an old friend and neighbor of mine, and his people now live in 
Navarro county, Texas. I can remomber a little fellow by the name 
of Paul. I was on picket with him the day bofcn'o. He was the 
only Jew T ever saw in the army, and belonged to .Martin's com- 
pany, from Henderson county, Texas, but I never saw Paul any 
more. 1 can remember that all that was left of our company, out 
of over one hundred, after we came out of that fight was Captain 
Winkler, Lieutenant Mills and eight men. We had hardly stacked 
our guns when a shell from one of the Federal batteries exploded 
near us, knocked the guns down and came very near killing the bal- 
ance of us. I could not help but think how different this was from 
the way it was pictured out to us in war speeches at the commence- 
ment. It reminded me of what one of our men by the name of 
Brooks told me. He said he was on the picket line with an Irish- 
man. The Federals outnumbered them and thev knew it, and it 



—12— ; 

began to be a serious matter. So Mike said to the etiptain:,, _ "We 
must be getting away from here. They will kill us all."' ' '''No; 
you must stand your ground, ]\rike/' said the captain. "If you 
should happen to be killed here, there would be a great big monu- 
ment erected to your memory, with great big letters on it, 'Sacred 
to the memory of Mike Donohue, who died in defense of his coun- 
try.' " "Yes, and be Jesus and it might stand here one hundred 
years," said Mike, "and I would never read a word of it, sir." 

There was a regiment camped near us for a while in Virginia, I 
think it was the Thirteenth Louisiana. They had one cojnpany that 
was all Irish and the Captain was an Irishman, and when they were 
called out to drill one evening, the colonel, who was a little tyran- 
nical with them, noticed something wrong with this company. He 
called out and said, "Captain, what in the devil is the reason you 
don't get your company into line, sir?" "Well, Colonel, you must 
be after getting this company into line yourself, for me and me 
company are not on spaken terms just now." All drunk, and of 
course they were not on spaken terms. 

The next day I went out with the litter bearers among the dead 
and wounded near the old Dunkard Church. The first man I no- 
ticed was a wounded Federal soldier. He made motions for me to 
come to him. He asked me if I would give him some water. He 
said he had been lying there twenty-four hours and was nearly 
dead from thirst. My canteen was full, as well as I can remember, 
and I handed it to him. I think he drank it all, or most of it. 
He then said he felt better, and that he could not have lived much 
longer without water. I think he said he belonged to tho Thir- 
teenth New Jersey, and had been in the army only about two weeks. 
He said he was a shoemaker by trade, and supported himself, 
mother and sister, but now he was crippled and did not know what 
would become of them, or whether he would ever see them again. 
About that time my attention was attracted to tlio litter bearers 
trying to move a man that had been killed the day before. There 
was a dog lying beside him, and every time they started toward the 
man the dog would jump at them and growl ; he tliought the man 
was only asleep. They were meditating about what to do — to move 
the man they would have to kill the dog. I started toward them, 
and in passing a tree I heard a minnie ball strike the tree, and one 
of the litter bearers cried, "Drop that gun. We are under a white 
flag liere. You ought not to come out here with a gun." Well, it 
didn't take me long to drop that gun. The best friend to man is 
the dog; next is the horse, and many a poor horse loses his life try- 
ing to serve the man. 

That night, between midnight and day, we crossed the Potomiic. 
We traveled on about two miles and lay down beside the road. 
About daylight we heard the roar of artillery and musketry behind 



—13- 



us. From this we knew that the Federals were following us. We 
soon learned that General Jackson had stationed his men on the 
south side of the river^ and when the Federals hegan to cross he 
gave them a lot of dead and wounded to take care of. We had 
no more trouble with them for a while. We traveled on, and when 
we reached Fort Royal we had another fight, and there we lost 
Captain Woodward of the First Texas, who came from Palestine, 
Texas. 




Battle of Sharpsburg, September 17, 1862. 

We traveled on, and one day halted on the side of the road to 
rest. Bill Fuller had just come in with some whisky. He was an 
old man, and the captain never tried to control him. He would 
always go into a fight, but he was never very particular about keep- 
ing up on a march or staying in camp. Often he would try to 
borrow General Hood's horse to go to town to pick up stragglers. 
The artillery and wagons were passing, and Bill was having some- 
thing to say to everybody, and we were all laughing at him. About 



that time General Hood and his staff came along, and Bill jumped 
up and gave him a salute and said: "Early camps tonighl, Gen- 
eral, and plenty of meat and bread." "Sir," replied General Hood, 
"we will stop about a mile and a half from here." "If it's all the 
same with you, General," says Bill, "leave out the 'about' and tell 
us how far it is, for we are awful hungry and tired." Captain 
Winkler was a good-natured kind of a man, and T never heard him 
utter a profane word, but he was out of patience with Bill. He 
turned around to us and said: "You confounded fellows, I am 
trying to quiet the man, and you all are encouraging him. I'll have 
the last one of you arrested if you don't let him alone. Fuller, if 
you don't dry up I will have you put in the guard house as soon as 
we stop." "All right. Captain," replied Bill, "I am oitlier on guard 
or under guard all the time, and it's all the same with me, sir." 
On one occasion when the minnie balls and shell? began to fly 
around the captain says, "Hold your position, men." Bill says, 
"Hold the devil. Captain, you had better let us fall back in that 
hollow." Bill died about two years ago in Wharton county, Texas. 
Ho was totally 1)lind and his hair was as white as cotton. Captain 
King had agreed to take him into the Confederate Home, but it 
was too late. "When I wrote to him to come to Austin, that Sam 
Billingsley and myself would sign his papers, his family answered 
and said he had been dead about three weeks. 

We were now on the south bank of the Rappahannock, near Fred- 
ericksburg, and many of the men who had been sick and wounded 
came in. The Federal army was on the north bank. They tried to 
cioss and drive us south, and there we had anothei" fight, but most 
of it was in front of General Jackson. It was about This time that 
the Eighteenth Georgia left us and went to some other department. 
They were a gallant set of men, and called themselves the Third 
Texas. We regretted to see them go, but the Third Arkansas took 
their place — a regiment of good men. 

It was now December, and there is plenty of snow, and it is very 
cold. Captain Reilly and some of the other officers called out the 
men for a snowball fight. There must have been at least ten thou- 
sand men engaged in the battle. Snow flew in every direction. 
Reilly's battery was attached to Hood's brigade. Captain Eeilly 
was on his horse, and had the appearance of a "Lager Beer Dutch- 
man." The men piled snow upon him until it was almost -mpos- 
sible to tell the color of his horse, but still he seemed to enjoy the 
sport. The next day we went down on the banks of the Eappahan- 
nock on picket. The Federals were on the opposite side. We sat 
there and talked to them all day. One of them said, "Boys, can't 
you throw me over some tobacco?" "All right," was the answer. 
"Throw us over some late papers, and we'll throw you some to- 
bacco." This wc did bv tving a rook to it, but General Lee soon 



—15— 

heard of this and stopped it. We had to do something ; some of the 
men played cards; some chuck-a-luck. We organized a court- 
martial to try some of the men. We were reminded that when the 
fight commenced at Manassas they were issuing ration:-;, and it was 
necessary to detail two men from each company to take the bacon 
and crackers and go to the rear. Jordan and Warren started to 
the rear for our company, and when they were about a half mile off, 
where the shells from the Federal batteries would fall and explode, 
they pulled for tall timber, and it was nearly two days before they 
joined the company. Bob Crawford was the marshal, George 
Foster was the attorney and 1 was the judge advocate. Warren's 
case was called, and it was decided to ride him on a pole, which was 
done; but he soon jumped off. with his butcher knife in his hand, 
and the boys had all they could do to keep out of his reach. All 
this time Jordan was sitting down before the fire whittling, ap- 
parently indifferent as to what was going on. When his name was 
called I proposed to the court that before we proceed with the 
regular order of business that we question Mr. Jordan and see 
whether or not he was in his right mind when he ran off with the 
meat. George Foster tapped him on the shoulder and said : ''Come, 
Ira ; you hear what the judge says?" Jordan turned around in an 
indift'erent kind of way and replied: ''Now, look here, boys, 
enough of anything is enough. I am in my right mind novv, and 
if you fellows fool with me I'll stick my knife in some of you." 
Of course, when he said this, the men all whooped and yelled, and 
some of the officers hearing them, interfered and broke up the 
court. 

We soon started south (that is, Longstreet's corps) and left 
Generals Lee and Jackson in command of the position. We stopped 
near Ashland, twenty-seven miles north of Richmond. Snow was 
on the ground and it was very cold. John Duran and Bob Hollo- 
way had just come in. They were in a fine talking humor. I think 
they found some applejack somewhere, for they were full of new 
ideas. It was after dinner ; John said, ''Jerry, I am hungry ; I 
want something to eat." "Well, John," replied Jerry, "the boys 
eat everything up." "The devil you say; where are my peas?" "I 
cooked them and they eat them." "That's a devil of a tale lo tell. 
I carried them peas forty miles, and now I come in hungry — nearly 
starved — and not a damned pea left." Jerry Cadd^^ll, Jack Hill 
and Stokes were killed in the ditches at Petersburg. While in those 
ditches General Lee and his staff came along with an instrument 
trying to make a calculation of the distance to the Federal bat- 
teries, and one of our men said to them : "]\rister, how far can you 
see through that thing?" "Oh, I can see a long ways," was the 
reply. "Well, I wish you would look through that thing and tell 
us how far it is to the end of this war." 



—16— 







—17— 

We left Ashland and traveled on to Eichmond. Snow had been 
falling all the time. Some of the men were almost barefooted, and 
as they traveled they left blood in their tracks. Wc didn't know 
where we were going or what we were going to do. 1 supposed we 
were going to have another killing, but I didn't think many of us 
were fat enough for market. AYe traveled on from Richmond to 
Petersburg; snow was still falling. We were cold and hungry, but 
we felt that we needed rest and sleep more than anything else. 
When we stopped we raked away the snow, spread our blankets and 
bunked up three and four together. The next morning we were 
covered with snow. At roll call two of our men were missing, 
Harris and Terrell. About 10 o'clock in the day somebody stepped 
On them ; they were covered with snow about ten inches deep. We 
cleared away the snow and raised the old tent cloth and then the 
blankets, then a puff of smoke went up into the air, and there they 
lay, sound asleep. We remained at Petersburg a few days and then 
moved on, finally stopping near Suffolk, on the Nanceman river. 
Here we lost Captain Turner of the Fifth Texas and Terrell of our 
company trying to take a gunboat. 

There was a line of rifle pits about two hundred and fifty yards 
in front of the Federal batteries. There was a call for volunteers 
to go into these pits; I was one to volunteer. We had to go in at 
night and come out at night; ten or twelve men in a pit and a 
hundred and twenty-five rounds of cartridges to eacb man. Now, 
these breastworks in front of us had barrels filled with sand on top 
of them, with just enough room between them for a musket, and 
when we could not see daylight between the barrels of sand that 
was the time to shoot. I don't remember now whether it was my 
first or second day in the pit, but it was about 3 o'clc-ck in the even- 
ing, when one of the Federals shot at me, struck my hat brim and 
took a small piece off my right ear ; this was a close call, but a miss 
is as good as a mile. We were watching them carry some fellow 
away on a litter when one of our men cried : "Look out, boys ; that 
old cannon will go off directly.'^ We just had time to back our- 
selves up against the front side of the pit when bcrom went the 
cannon and a shell about the size of a lamp post burst a little in 
front of us. A piece of it struck the back part of my hat brim and 
shaved the breast of my jacket — another close call. Another piece 
struck the ground about ten feet in front of the pit, digging a hole 
deep enough to bury a horse and rolling about two wagon loads of 
dirt in on us. I can remember that we had to rake the dirt off 
a man named Holms. I never saw a man more excited than he was ; 
he thought we were all dead. As for myself, I never thought T 
would live to see the sun go down. I don't remember ever seeing 
Holms again, as he belonged to a different company, but I am sat- 
isfied it is the last time he ever volunteered to go into a rifle pit 



—18— 

within two hundred and fifty yards of the batteries. It settled it 
with me; I thought if I did what I was ordered to do after that, 
that would be enough. I think we left Suffolk during March or 
April, 1863, and went back to Petersburg and Eichniond, and then 
went north and joined General Lee somewhere on the Eappalian- 
nock. Then the whole army, with Stuart's cavalry, started north. 
We all knew we would soon have another big killing. 

Nothing of importance happened on the march; plenty of rain, 
creeks all up, and a hard time on the gray backs. Not many young 
men of this generation know what a gray back is, but if they had 
been in General Lee's army one month without changing their 
clothing they would know the meaning of the word. General 
Jackson had gone to his long home and General A. P. Hill took 
his place. We crossed the Potomac river at Williamsport, Md., 
on the 26th of June, 1863. Here we took a lot of government 
stores from the Federals, and among other things a lot of whisky. 
It was rolled out on the hill, the heads knocked out of the barrels 
and issued to the men by the cupful. I don't suppose the oldest 
man living in America ever saw as many drunk men at any one 
time. It was all the officers could do to hold them down ; they were 
full of new ideas. Colonel Manning of the Third Arkansas was 
ver)' strict with his men, and he tried to carry out army regulations. 
"Take that man and dip him in the creek," he commanded. 'T^ow 
set him up on his feet and see if he can walk." The man staggered 
a little and fell down. "Dip him in again." All the other otficers 
had all they could do to keep the men from fighting. 

We traveled on and stopped at Greencastle, Pa. General Lee 
issued orders to the men not to leave their commands, as they were 
now in the enemy's coimtry, and not to depredate on the citizens. 
We traveled on through Chambersburg ; the houses were all closed 
and the women waved the Stars and Stripes at us. We moved on 
a short distance and then stopped and struck camp. The people 
here were all Dunkards. They seemed to think more of their stock 
than they did of themselves ; they had a very fine barn, but lived in 
a very ordinary looking house. I was put on guard at one of these 
houses, and stood at the gate all day to keep the men from depre- 
dating on them. A woman called me in to dinner, which was one 
of the finest meals I ever sat down to. The old ^ady remarked'. 
"Oh, this cruel war! I just wish you men with your muskelV could 
get them big fellows in a ring and stick your bayonets in to them 
and make them fight it out. You could settle it in a few minutes." 
I was young then and had never given the subject a sober thought, 
but since I have often thought of that old woman's remarks. Of 
course we all know now, for we have some experience in war. that 
if all the leaders and men who make war S]>eeches and excite the 
people knew that in case of war they would have to pick up their 



-19— 



gun and help fight the battles and take their chance? along with 
the men there would not be many wars. They would adopt Dr. 
Franklin's plan— raise the money and pay for the territory or prop- 
erty in question rather than go to war. 

We traveled on, and soon heard cannonading and knew that the 
ball had opened. Late in the afternoon we heard that our column 
had had a fight with the Federals. This was the first day's fight at 
Gettysburg. I always thought it was on the 2d of July, but in 








^MM 





TAWI. b, Ur»Bojl 



Battle of Gettysburg, July 2, 1863. 



order to agree with everybody else I will call it the 1st of July, 
1863. By sun-up the next day we passed over the battleground and 
saw the dead and wounded, and we could see our artillery in front 
of us, all unlimbered and in battle array, flags flying and men going 
in every direction. About 4 o'clock in the afternoon, T understand, 
we were on the right of General Lee's army; the line of battle was 
seven miles long. Sam Miller and I left the ranks to get canteens 
of water for our company, and I never saw Sam any more until 



—20— 

the war was over; he was captured and sent to Fr>rt Delaware. 
Mat Beasley was ordered to take Captain Porter's old company 
from Hiintsville into the fight. They had never gone into a fight 
and came out with a captain or lieutenant. We all gathered 
around Mat and said to him, "Good-bye ; you are gone now/* Bob 
Crawford said: "I am sorry for you, but I can't help you any." 
He was the only captain that ever came out alive with that com- 
pany. Moving slowly, we entered the valley in a wheat field. We 
could see the Federals on the. hills to our left, and tlie Stars and 
Stripes waving at us. About this time a shell from the P'ederal 
batteries came along through our lines and cut a man's head off; 
his name was Floyd, from San Antonio. I was within about forty 
steps of him. Just then the command was given to "Forward !" 
It was 300 or 400 yards to the foot of the hill, on which bordered 
a rock fence. When we were forty or fifty steps from this fence 
the Federal batteries on the hill turned loose at the fence with solid 
shot, and rocks were flying in every direction. This scattered our 
men; many of them were killed, wounded and captured. We were 
right in front of the batteiT. No time for shining shoes. So great 
was the confusion that I have no recollection of passing over the 
fence. I can remember when I was about half way up the hill I 
stopped behind a big rock to load my gun; I could see Captain 
Eeilly's batterv a little to our right, and he was cleaning off the 
top of that hill. There was a solid blaze of fire in front of his bat- 
tery. Right here, as well as I can remember. Bill Smith fell. He 
was a son of Tom I. Smith, an old pioneer, after whom Smith 
county, Texas, was named. He left his wife with her father, W. H. 
Mitchell, at the head of Eiohland and Chambers creek, ten miles 
west of Millford, Ellis county, Texas, and never saw her anv more, 
and I doubt if she ever knew what became of him. When we 
reached the battery at the top of the hill the men had all left. 
Some dead were lying around, I don't remember hov: many. Harris 
of our company was in front of me. He put his hand on the cannon 
and was looking over the hill. The cannon was lying on a rock, I 
think, and the wheels behind the rock. I could hear the minnie 
balls going over our heads. I said to him: "Hold on, Harris; we 
are by ourselves ; Avait till the balance come up." "Oh, I want to 
see where they liave gone," replied Harris; "they are not far off." 
A])out that time a shell burst in front of us and a piece of it went 
through his breast, and it seemed to me that I could run my arm 
through that man's body. His face turned as white as cotton, and, 
strange to say, he turned around and tried to walk in that condi- 
tion, but fell over and was dead in less than five minutes. Hid peo- 
ple lived somewhere in Virginia, but I don't know their address. 
Now, I could see the Third Arkansas to our left, and could hear 
Colonel Manning's voice; then I saw three or four lumdred Fed- 



—21— 

erals throw down their guns and surrender to thcni. I saw Gen- 
eral Hood walking down the hill holding his arm. T understood his 
arm was broken above the elbow and four inches of the bone taken 
out. By daylight the next morning we had a line of battle on top 
of that hill; we lay there all day. About 12 o'dock m the day I 
heard firing in our rear. I saw a house on fire and thought we were 
surrounded and would be captured, but I soon learned that a regi- 
ment of Federal cavalry was trying to destroy General Lee's am- 
munition train, which was protected by two regiments of infantry. 
The Federals succeeded until they were right in among the wagons; 
then the infantry closed in on them, and I don't think a man es- 
caped. The colonel refused to surrender and shot himself. Then 
commenced an artillery duel. General Lee had two hundred and 
twenty-five pieces of artillery, and he turned all of it loose on the 
Federal lines, and I suppose the Federals had as many or more to 
reply with. Just imagine what a thundering noise all these can- 
non made, all firing, you might say, at once, to say nothing about 
the loss of life and property ! I never did believe that any man 
knew the number of armed men engaged on both sides at the Battle 
of Gettysburg, but I will give it as my opinion, from what I could 
see and hear, there must have been, all told. Federals and Confed- 
erates, at least 175,000 men, and the number ;)f killed, wounded 
and captured, on both sides between 40,000 and 45,000. It has 
been forty years now, and I don't remember the names of my own 
company that were lost, much less the army. We lost our lieu- 
tenant colonel, Carter of the Fourth Texas, and I heard that Hood's 
Brigade lost 500 or 600 men. About 3 or 4 o'clock in the evening 
of the third day at Gettysburg we were still in line of battle on the 
hills; I don't know enough about the country to say whether it was 
Cemetery Eidge, Little Eound Top, or what it was. The Federals 
made a charge and our left gave way. We fell back in the valley 
and formed in line of battle. I heard the cavalry horses and the 
horns. 'Tiook out, boys!" some one shouted; "get ready for a cav- 
alry charge." But for some reason they never came. I suppose 
their prudence and judgment got the best of them. T know nothing 
about the cavalry service, Init I know it's a hard matter to get a lot 
of cavalry to charge a line of infantry. They know it's a serious 
matter for many of them will go to their long homes when they 
try it. It began to get dark and commenced raining. The sergeant 
ordered me to go back on the side of the mountain on picket ; Lieu- 
tenant Mills of our company was with us. Lieutenant Pugh Fuller, 
Fifth Texas, from Houston, and I sat down on a big rock. We 
were compelled to keep up a strong picket line all night. Dead 
men were all around us, and it rained all night. Tt was as dark as 
a nigger's pocket. I was sleepy, hungry and tired. T could feel the 
gray backs moving around. I knew it would take a dose of red 



—22— 

pepper occasionally and somebody to stick pins in me all night to 
keep me awake, but it would not do to go to sleep here. Between 
midnight and day I was nearly dead, completely exhausted. I lost 
all feeling of fear or duty and began to nod a little. Lieutenant 
Mills came along and tapped me on the shoulder and said : ^^Don't 
go to sleep here." But if I had known that I would be shot the 
next minute it would have been all the same with me. But Mills 
-was an old neighbor and friend, and he said nothing about it, but 
it would have been a serious matter with me if he had reported me. 
At daylight General Lee's army moved olf and left the battlefield 
of Gettysburg, About 8 or 9 o'clock he came riding along, and 
the men began to wave their hats and cheer him. He simply 
raised his hat, rode along and said nothing. He was plain, simple 
and unassuming in his manners, and never encouraged anything of 
this kind. We all wanted to show him that we had not lost con- 
fidence in him, and he understood it that way. General Lee was a 
man who had but little to say to anybody. He alw;iys looked to me 
like he was grieving about the want of men and means to carry out 
his plans. Patrick Henry defines it a? "the illusions of hope. But 
as our enemies would say, we are looking for something that we 
have never lost and don't expect to find." About this time a copy 
of Harper's Weekly lias a picture of General Eobert E. Lee, and 
says that, "although he was educated at the expense of the govern- 
ment he is now trying to destroy, he is looked upon by the eyes of 
the world as master of the arts of war," and we might say that his 
name and fame will live and command the respect of our people 
when most of our noted men are forgotten. 

Falling back from Gettysburg, John Maley left the ranks to get 
some rations in a haversack, but managed to get lost and the Fed- 
eral cavalry picked him up and took him to Washington City and 
put him in the old Capitol ]irison. President Lincoln came ai'ound 
through the prison and John walked up to him and said, "How do 
you do, Mr. President; mv name is John Maley from Texas." 
"Glad to k-now you, Mr. Maley." "Well, Mr. President, I think 
yon and me have been in all the jails and prisons in the United 
States." "Well, I don't know, I've been in this one and one in 
Springfield, 111., are the only ones I remember now." "Well, I've 
been in all the l)alnnce. Mr. President, so that makes it all right, 
sir." They must have turned him out to get rid of him for it was 
not long till he was hack in liis company, and related his interview 
with the President. 

Another incident Avas of a man that belonged to some Georgia 
regiment. The cajitain came along and found him Iving down by 
the side of the road and said, "What are you doing liere, John?" 
"Captain, I'm give out, old shoes worn out and feet blistered, I 
can't march no further. Captain." He knew there were some am- 



—23— 

bulances in the rear that would pick him up, so he Left him. About 
the time he reached his company he heard firing in the rear, and 
looked around and John passed him making about seven feet at a 
jump. "Hello, John, I thought you couldn't march any further." 
"March, the devil, Captain, you call this marching?" 

We passed through Hagerstown between midnight and day, 
crossed the Potomac and went down through Virginia to Eich- 
mond; there we shipped for Bragg's army. We stopped at Well- 
don, N". C, which is a junction of railroads; here tliore wero a lot 
of North Carolina men on another train going south. There must 
have been a thousand barrels of resin on the ground, and we began 
to throw resin at the tar-heels. One of them asked: "Have you 
got any good tobacco ?" "N'o," we replied, "but we have one of the 
best chaws of resin you ever saw." About that time we could hear 
their guns click-click-click. It was all the officers could do to stop 
it; if they hadn't intervened there would have been hJoodshed right 
there. We started west and traveled north through iSTorth Carolina. 
The train was heavily loaded and we traveled slow. Some of us 
were on top of the cars; one fellow playing a fiddle; another fellow 
down in the car blowing a horn, all happy lords, yet knowing at the 
same time that we were going right into another big killing and 
that many of us would go to our long homes. We traveled to At- 
lanta, Ga., and then to a point near Dalton. 

It was Thursday afternoon, September 17, 18G^^. ; rations were 
issued to us and we commenced cooking. We could hear cannon- 
ading, but it was a long way off. We soon received orders to make 
preparations to move, and we traveled all that night. The next 
day, Friday, about 10 o'clock, we ran into some Federal cavalry 
and knocked some of them off their horses ; some of oin* men se- 
cured some new cavalry hats, but they afterward lost them at the 
night fight on Eaccoon Mountain. JBill Calhoun, Fourth Texas, 
from Austin, came into camp with an old cap on. "Bill, where is 
your hat?" asked one of the boys. "Oh, it belonged to a gentleman 
from Iowa," answered Bill, "and lie come after it." We traveled 
all day Friday, halting some time during the night. Saturday 
morning we continued our march, and about 3 o'clock in the after- 
noon of the 19th of September, 1863, we were near the center of 
the Federals' line of battle. The booming of cannon and roaring 
of musketry commenced on both sides. We moved u]j in line of 
battle; Cheatham's division (Tennessee troops), I think, were in 
front of us, and T imderstand there were two lines l)ehind us, Cle- 
burne's and Hindman's, making four lines of battle in front of the 
Federals. We were ordered to lialt and lie down. Shot and shell 
were coming through the woods from the Federal batteries ; Cheat- 
ham's men coming out wounded in every way. Occasionally an 
artilleryman came out with his swab on his shoulder, showing that 



— -U- 









-■? 






■V. --jH 







—25— 

he had lost his battery. About this time two negroes met near me, 
one going in, the other coming out. The one coming out said: 
"WHiere are you gwine?" "I am gwine to carry Captain (some- 
body) his dinner," the negro answered. "You are the biggest fool 
nigger I ever saw. Dat man's dead. I 'spect I don't know what 
the white folks thinking about, nohow ; the way they are killin' one 
another now, there won't be nobody left, and I don't know what 
they want with the country after everybody is dead." At this 
moment a shell from the Federal batteries came along, cutting the 
timber down in front of it. The two negroes dropped to the ground 
filled with terror. "Now, just look at dat!" continued one of the 
negroes. "Any man or set of men dat will shoot such things as dat 
at folks, and den talk about Christianity, dey is got no raisin' and 
is black-hearted. Just look how de men is coniin' out shot ! You 
just ought to be up yonder where I'se been; some of them on de 
ground, hurt so bad they can't walk, some dead ; don't talk to me 
'bout war. T done seen enough now. Look out, here comes another 
shell. No use dodgin' them things after they done passed, no dan- 
ger in 'em nohow, 'ceptin' they hit you." About the time he fin- 
ished saying this another shell came whizzing along. "Look here," 
he says, "we ain't got nothing to do with this fight. We better he 
gettin' away from here; dars gwine to be some dead niggers right 
here." And that was the last I saw of them. 

Of course I knew we would soon be ordered into the fight and 
that some of us would never come out. I walked up to Tobe Riggs 
of our company. He had never missed a battle or roll call. He 
was a cousin of mine. He had been having chills and looked bad. 
"Tobe," I said to him, "you ought not to go into this fight; the 
doctor will excuse you." "Oh, I'm all right," he replied. I could 
say no more. Just then the command was given : "Attention, cap 
your pieces, fonvard, guide center, march ; give way to the right, 
give way to the left." When we reached Cheatham's line, about 
two hundred and fifty yards distant, we found them in the edge of 
an old field. They were all behind trees, but so many of them had 
been killed and wounded that it looked more like a picket line than 
a line of battle. They yelled for joy when they saw us coming; 
they expected to be all killed right there. We did not take time to 
exchange compliments. As well as I can remember the Federal 
lines were in a ditch fence about two hundred and fifty yards off, 
and we made no halt, but passed through Cheatham's lines, and I 
think they joined us, and as soon as the Federals discovered our 
approach they gave us a salute by waving the Stars and Stripes at 
us, in order to ridicule the idea of us coming toward them. Then 
they emptied their guns at us, and it seemed that every third or 
fourth man in our line was cut down. Billie Carroll and Tobe 
Eiggs both fell not over five or six feet from me. We lost Dock 



—27— 

Childers and Chisiim Walker, but they did not fall so near me; 
but all four of them were of Winkler's old company, from Corsi- 
cana, Texas. T suppose if we had stopped there and given the 
Federals time to reload their guns they would have killed the rest 
of us, but we moved on to them with loaded guns. We broke their 
lines; I don't know what their loss was, but there were dead and 
wounded Federal soldiers in every direction. After we broke 
through their line I went back to see what had become of Riggs. 
I found that his leg was broken at the knee joint. Billie Carroll, 
who was lying near Riggs, was dead. I lifted Tobe up on his feet ; 
of course it was painful. His face was as white as cotton. T found 
Abe Rogers of IMartin's company from Henderson county, Texas, 
near Tobe; he was shot in the instep of his foot, and was making 
a great deal more noise than Tobe. I placed him up on his feet and 
walked between him and Tobe some two or three hundred yards 
and turned them over to Dr. Jones, surgeon of the Fourth Texas 
regiment, and never saw them any more. I went back and joined 
my company, but the Federals had disappeared. I sat down beside 
a wounded Indiana man and he asked me for some water. I gave 
him my canteen and talked to him a few minutes. There was a 
dead man lying near him. T opened the dead man's knapsack and 
proceeded to read his letters ; he must have had forty or fifty, mostly 
from women in the State of Indiana. In one it seems he had been 
boasting about their great victory at Gettysburg. She answered 
him and said : "You men in t,he army seem to consider it a great 
victory for the Federals at the battle of Gettysburg, but if you 
could only be at home now and see the widows and orphans, made 
so by the battle of Gettysburg, you would not consider it much of 
a victory." (The battle we had just passed thro.ugh was the battle 
of Chickamauga, and, as well as I can remember it, was Saturday, 
the 18th of September, 1863. The Kansas, Illinois and Indiana 
men were in front of us, and they could stand killing better than 
any men I ever saw.) I was very much interested in reading these 
letters, but I heard some one on a horse approaching behind me. 
I turned around, and found it was General Hood sitting on his 
horse looking at me. "Well," he said, "you didn't get hurt !" "No, 
sir," I replied. "How did your regiment come out?" he asked. 
"We lost a great many men," I answered, "but I don't know how 
many." "Well, I am very sorry to hear it," he replied, and rode off. 
Wlien the war commenced Hood was appointed colonel of our reg- 
iment (the Fourth Texas), and he knew us all by sight, but could 
not call our names. He was a social, kind-hearted man. liiit a little 
impulsive at times. He would often walk up to me and sliake hands 
with me and talk to me, but never knew my name. He was dif- 
ferent from most of the old army officers. He recognized the fact 
that most of the men in the Confederate army were good, respect- 



—28— 

able citizens at home, and that it was public spirit and sense of 
duty that caused them to be there. General Hood could get order 
out of confusion on a .battlefield in less time and apparently with 
less trouble than any man I ever saw. I can remember that there 
was an Indian who went out with us to Virginia; the rattle of 
musketry he stood as well as any of us, but whenever the artillery 
turned loose he would give a whoop and run like a turkey. "Too 
much for Injun," ho would say. At the battle of Seven Pines 
General Hood came along the line, and this Indian was guarding 
some prisoners. "What are you keeping those prisoners standing 
there for?" questioned General Hood. "Going to take them down 
in the woods and kill them," was the reply. "No, you are not go- 
ing to do any such thing," said General Hood. "Sergeant," he con- 
tinued, "take these prisoners to the rear." 

Saturday night, the lOtli of September, at Chickamauga, we all 
lay down in line of battle. We could hear the Federals cutting 
down trees and building breastworks, and we knew that we would 
have to get up next morning and take those breastworks, regardless 
of cost, and with that vast army in front of us, and they behind the 
breastworks, we knew that it was a serious matter. By sun-up 
Sunday morning, the 20th, we were in line of battle. General 
Longstreet had just come up, and I could see him and other officers 
riding up and down the line, and I knew from this that we would 
soon have another big killing. About 8 or 9 o'clock the command 
was given: "Attention, forward, guide center, march." Jack 
Massie took hold of mo and said : "You get by the side of me ; 
when you fall I want that watch you have got on." Bob Crawford 
said: "I want his boots." We moved forward, and when we 
reached the first line of breastworks, which was composed of trees 
and parts of houses, the Federals were on the retreat. Shot and 
shell were flying in everv direction ; minie l)alls could be hoard 
whizzing througli the air, and the roar of artillery was deafening. 
Al)out this time I fell to the ground. This settled it with me, and 
I have no recollection of what happened after that. "When I re- 
covered I was lying in a hospital tent. Wounded men were all 
around me. T turned over and Jack Massie was right beside me. 
T said to him, "Is that you, .Jack?" "Yes," he answered. "My leg's 
cut off; Tobe Riggs died a few minutes ago." They had cut Tobe's 
leg off, giving him chloroform, and he never M-oke up. I had no 
idea what was the matter with me; I was bloody, sick and nearly 
dead from thirst, and to say that I had a headache would not ex- 
press it. I found that a minnie ball had struck me in the temple, 
in front of the riglit ear, and lodged in tlio back of mv head. I 
turned to Jack and asked him how long I had been there, but I 
don't romembor whether he said Tuesday or Wednesday, but believe 
he said Wednesdav. I was wounded on Sundav. In a few davs I 



—29— 

was able to walk around a little. I could see muskets lying on the 
ground in every direction, and a pile of arms and legs which had 
been cut off of men. I suppose it would have taken a wagon, and 
perhaps two, to have carried the arms and legs cut off of men on 
the battlefield of Chickamauga. In a few days I was sent to Eich- 
mond, and, I think it was some time in December the ball was cut 
out of my head. It was a delicate piece of work, a great deal of 
risk about it. Dr. Charles Bell Gibson, at the corner of Clay 
Street and Brooks Avenue, Eichmond, Va., performed the opera- 
tion. Dr. Gibson was considered the finest surgeon in the Confed- 
eracy. Of course I was under the influence of chloroform and un- 
conscious and knew nothing of what happened, except what they 
told me afterwards. He cut the skin on the back of my head, 
found the outside skull bones broken, lifted the pieces of bone and 
found the ball, about one-half the length of the forefinger, lodged 
in the back of my head. He was unable to secure a hold on it with 
his instruments and was compelled to use a chisel and hammer. I 
suppose the old gray jacket and minnie ball can be found among 
the war relics at Eichmond today. It took about three months for 
my head to heal. Mrs. Oliver waited on me. She washed the hole 
with a syringe and warm soap suds and water every twenty-four 
hours, for nearly three months ; had to keep the place open so it 
w^ould heal inside first. The doctor said if it was let alone it 
would heal outside in a few days and inflammation would set in 
and kill me. Mrs. Oliver, of whom I speak. I think, is long since 
in her grave. She saved my life several times, and my bones today 
would be in the sod of old Virginia had it not been for her. She 
carried me through one long spell of sickness in the winter of 1861, 
and twice afterward when I was wounded. And I am not the only 
Confederate soldier she waited on. I heard General Hood say to 
her: "Mrs. Oliver, I have often heard my men speak of you in 
very high terms, and I consider it my duty to thank you for your 
kindness." Our women have often proven themselves heroines in 
war as well as in peace. I have often seen them, l)orn and reared in 
luxury, who had never seen a wounded man before, pass through 
hospitals, waiting on the patients, and the sight of it would make 
them sick, but tliey would do all that was possible for women to do. 
And today it is the influence of the women over the men that pro- 
vides the comforts for the old Confederates in their declining years. 
By the month of March, 1864, I was again able to travel. Gen- 
eral Hood was now in Eichmond. He lost his leg at Chickamauga. 
He wrote a very complimentary letter to the Secretary of War, and 
said I had always done my duty and that I was worthy of promo- 
tion. The President endorsed the letter and said that "the within 
communication, and verbal assurance of members of Congress, con- 
vinces me of his fitness for promotion, and I commend him to your 



—so- 
kind attention." Signed Jefferson Davis, James A. Seddon. Tlie 
Secretary of War issued me a captain's commission and transporta- 
tion west of the Mississippi river. General Hood told me "good- 
bye" and cautioned me about going inside the Federal lines; that 
I might get caught when I least expected it and spoil everything. 
I crossed the IMississippi river and joined General Price's army; 
I found them at Prairie De Ann. Arkansas. I took part in a few 
cavalry fights, but this didn't look like soldiering to me, so, at the 
suggestion of General Price and Colonel Campbell, I joined an ex- 
pedition to go into Missouri and get out some recruits for our army. 
Now, this was a new business to me and it is attended with a great 
deal of risk, but I had made so many narrow escapes that T had 
become perfectly reckless and never thought of danger or that I 
would ever see the inside of a prison. I think it was now July, 
1864. It was raining all the time, and we were compelled to swim 
all the creeks and rivers. We went from one neighborhood to an- 
other, and the men knew everybody, so all went well till we were 
near a place, I think it was Salem, Mo., or EoUa, I forget which. 
Here there were some Federal soldiers stationed. We camped in 
the woods, and the next morning, about sun-up, we started out to 
strike the big road, Dick Kitchens and myself in front. I said, 
"Dick, I don't like this big road ; let's get out of it." "We will 
leave it directly,"- replied Dick. Just then we came to a short turn 
in the road and were within forty or fifty steps of a lot of Federal 
cavalry, who were coining toward us. They began to pull their pis- 
tols on us. The balance of our men beliind us heard Dick call out. 
"Put up them pistols; put up them pistols." We all pulled our 
guns, as the only thing to be done was to run the bluff on them. 
Dick went right at them, Avith his pistol drawn, and they soon con- 
cluded that a good run was better than n bad stand and soon disap- 
peared. Knowing that they would soon return with reinforcements, 
which they did, Dick said to us: "Now, let's get away from here." 
Then it was a run through the brush for five or six miles. T lost 
my saddlebags, all my clothing and papers and fifteen hundred 
dollars in Confederate money. My horse seemed to take in the sit- 
uation, and it was all T could do to stick to him. I kept in sight of 
Dick, as I was a stranger in the country. Not a man in our crowd 
would have surrendered on any kind of terms; the Federals could 
have taken us in, because they outnumbered us, but they knew to 
do tliis there would he twelve or fifteen of them left on the ground 
dead or wounded, and none of them wanted to die. Tn tliose days 
the people of Missouri and Kentucky were divided in sentiment, 
some TTnion and some Confederate, and they were arrayed in deadly 
combat, and in the State of Kentucky thev are still that way to 
pome extent. Tn Missouri it is reported that the Federals would 
burn down houses and turn women and children out of doors if any 



—31— 

of the men were in the Confederate army. This made the men 
desperate. I miderstood there was a heavy reward for Dick Kitch- 
ens and several men in onr crowd. I then commenced to make 
propositions to get what men we could together and turn back 
south; when I fight I like to have some show for my life. But 
there was a trip to be made into St. Louis l)y some one in the crowd, 
and I was the only man who was not known to the Union people. 
It is not often that a man will tell anything that is liable to reflect 
on his character or good sense, but I always acted upon the princi- 
ple that it was best to tell the truth and shame the devil. I con- 
sented, but I must say that I never did anything in my life with 
more reluctance. As General Hood said to me when we parted in 
Eichmond : "Like all games of chance, if you are successful, you 
are all right; but if you fail, you are all wrong, and your best 
friends will doubt your loyalty." When I reached ' St. Louis I 
found people I had known all my life and some of them relatives. 
Of course I soon became reconciled, but the trouble was that I knew 
too many people.- I did what 1 agreed to do, made a trip over into 
Illinois, and shipped everything out on the railroad, and when I 
was making preparations to leave a detective walked up to me and 
said the provost marshal wanted to see me. Well, I knew then that 
it was all settled with me. I was taken to the Gratiot street prison 
and carried a ball and chain for six months, not knowing at what 
minute I might be taken out and shot. I had not been tliere long 
before seven men Avere taken out and executed to retaliate for some- 
thing that General Marmaduke had done. I knew one of them, 
Jim Mulligan; I went to school with him, I think in Batesville. 
Ark., in 1854 and 1855. Soon afterward a man by the name of 
Livingston was taken out and hanged as a spy; then another man 
by the name of Smith. Of course I thought my time would come 
next, but finally I was taken out and tried by court-martial, cliarged 
with being inside the Federal lines, trying to pilot men out of the 
Federal lines into the Confederate army, and shipping arms and 
ammunition through the lines. It was a serious matter with me, 
and about all the defense T had was on a line with the Irishman 
before the court for getting drunk and disturbing the peace. The 
judge said: "Now, Pat, are you guiltv or not?" "I don't know, 
indeed, Mr. Judge, till I hear the evidence," was the replv. Not 
having any proof I was sent to the old penitentiary at Alton, 111., 
to be confined there until the close of the war. 

Now I am a convict, not entitled to exchange or parole. I have 
lost my citizenship and the respect of all my friends and relatives. 
After about nine months confinement and hard living my constitu- 
tion gave way and I suffered with congestion of the lungs. The 
doctor said the next spell would take me off. When I was released 
from prison the Confederacy had about gone to pieces. It was all 



—32— 

over I he cliiiiilcrs rend 1111(1 t he :-l(ii'\ l<i|(|. I |i!i\ r Irl'l, (iiil iii;iii\' ill- 
cidciils mid iiiiiiics I'or wiiiil of n IiciUm' mciiiory ntid lidlrr ()j)|M)r- 
(iinilics. 'I'lii-; nil liii|i|M'ii('d foi'ly yt'iirH iigo, nnd I ciii only slato 
overfilling lU'cordiii;; In Ihr licst (if my I'ccdili'ction Miid I liiivc no 
fnrllii'r ('X|>liiMiil ion to iiiiikc r.nl I hope (liis narnilivc is siillicicnl, 

10 show lo llic yomii;' iiitMi mid wdiiicii (d' our coiinlry mid ridiirc 
^MMicnd i(»ns wlinl ;i iKuiililc lliin^^ wnr is. As for llic fnlo of John 
Wilkes [{oolli, who kdlcd j'residenl iiineolii, it was Konielhin<;' that 
the ( 'oiiredei'iiles we.re not implicated in. lioh llollowiiy t(dd me 
lli.il when (Jenei'al Lee surrendered he W(Mi|. lo his Jiom(> al Howlinpf 
(Jreen, Nn.. oii llic l>;ipp;di;iiiiiock ii\cr, ;ilionl liflccn miles helow 
l''rcdc!'icksluii;;-. lie hnd (uily hccn :il home a few days A\dten a 
lohncco liai'ii was inmicij down one nii^^hl ahoid a mile and a half 
from him. The uc\( day he went osci' there aiid found nothing 
hill a pile (d' ashes, which were sinroiitidcd 1(\ a pole fence, and in 
one ('(wner td' the fence was a pile of straw and leaves, and here ho 
found an opera ^lass with the name of ,). Wilkes Uooth onijravod 
on it. lie took it hoiii(> with him, and the news SOon went to Wash- 
iu^■toll and some ollicers came down and lotdc i| awa\' from him. 
So (hat oui;ht tosclllc I he (piest ion. Another iucideiit just after 
the surrender. Hutch Berry tells me that- not heinij; ahh^ to <f{M hack- 
to Texas, John Duran and himself slart(>d out on foot to mnlce 
Ihcir wa\ down inio North Carolina, where thcv holh liad rolativos. 
On the way Ihey stopped near a place wher(> there wore some Fed- 
eral soldiers camped. After sdiiie del iherat ioii on I he suhject, 1 1 iitch 
went in al ni^hl and contiscated two ^rood horses for John and liiin- 
s(>lf lo ride, and at dayli^hl there was n i^ood wide space hetwoon 
Ihem and wh(>re Ihev finind Die liorsos. At Iho last ronnion of 
Hood's Hriu-ade at Marlin, Texas, June 'J7tli. Hutch told me that 
.John has never selllcd with him for that lioi'sc. 1 n(die(Ml an ar- 
litde in the ("iiiciunali taKiiiircr of rcccnl dale from Mrs. lioiiji^- 
sti'cel. ill defeiis(> of Oeneral I /on^■sl reel 's conduct at Oottyslinrfr, 

11 is all hoimi'ahl(> and riyht in the woman lo try and defend tlio 
character of Ihm' hushami, who is now in his <;rav(\ T was in flon- 
oral Lon<;sl reel's eommaud for a lone,' time, and was uiuKm- him in 
Hie haltle o\' ( Jettyshurii', hut, as I can rememher it now, il was 
n righl husy linu' willi me, ucnni^- up thai mountain, the h\'d(>ral 
halleri(>s shooting- into th(> rock ftMiee in froid of us. rocks HyiTiij 
in every direction, lh(> air full of shot and sht>ll, and men fallinu: 
all ar(nind me. 1 had no lime lo look around and se(> what (~I(>noral 
Lon;;slre(M or anyone else was (loin<x, for 1 had all the husiness on 
hnnd that 1 conid attend to. hut my version id' (he matter from what 
1 could see and loarn then ami afterwards is very difTiMHMit from 
the opinion Ihal simmus lo pnnail anion,^; ixood peo]i1e today. It may 
nol 1h> correct and 1 have no ar^'umenl now lo make with anyhody 
ahoni it. .\s 1 have already staled, I was wounded at Chiekamanga, 



—33— 

gent to Uichmond, and waH thero ovor fiv<; rnofitJiH, mit] (}(-w.vd\ 
ITood waK in Kif-linjorxl at the 8a;n'; tirnf;. 1 oft<;n Haw fiiin afj'l 
taJko'l with him, and on ono ociat-ion, I think it wjw in the niofjth 
of JanuHry or Fehruary, IHO-I, at iiancsnl Sniith'H houjK;, we had 
hecn talking over the battloH of the war, when fiettyHhurg wan men- 
tioned. Not thinking it prudent to a«k him any dirwt qur*Htion, I 
said to him that it was alwayK a myfttery to uh that if we fia/J thoBC 
hilln Ut eharge, why we were fiehJ ho lorjg in that vaHey, lie lieni- 
tated a moment anrl Baid : "Well, that wa« on'; plaee I went fnf/; 
with a great deal of reluetanee, and I told General !>;<; that J eould 
put my diviKion in there, and would if J wa« ordenj'i V) do m, and 
lose a lot of my rnfm and arreompliHh nothing," 'J'hin much I have 
a distinct reeollwtion of, the balance of IiIh talk wa« in a general 
way and 1 do not remerrd/er all he wiid, hut I think he Haid that 
Cjeneral J/;e called » council of hiH officers i/> di^cuHH the nituation. 
General A. l\ iJill, who wuj-jtcAcA Oeneral .faoMfion, prof>o8^;d a 
general movement all along the line of all the infantry and artil- 
lery. General r>ee waid we were too lat« by ahout twenty- four liourn 
for Huch a movement as that. General I/>ng8treet then propo«^^d a 
flank movement. General [>;/; naid that with that va>:t army in 
front of U8 we would not he ahle U) prot^.-ct our wagon trains, h'j 
they feeparat^^d without any skittled plan of action, and General r>^;, 
after reviewing everything, decided to nmuma all responsibility 
hmiAiM; but that took time, and that H'-x-awuicA for the delay. 
Whether that Ih correc-t or not, the most sensible view t/> take of the 
matter is that if General fy^ngstreet was guilty of dis^)Tx;ying Gen- 
eral i>i<;'s orders, it is strange that a rrjan of General I>;e's s^;ns^; 
and ideas of discipline and good order never noiUxA it and did not 
make any complaint and have (iarmrul I /m'/Htrcjsi removed long 
U'fore the V>attle of Gettysburg, to say nothing aV>out what haf> 
pened then and aff/^rwards, Pet/; Walt/jn says that what we don't 
know about history in this world is more irnf^^^rtant than what we 
know. But it may not apply in this ca>»/^ As for the cause of the 
war, we all know that it was giving t/> the general government t/>o 
much authority over the States without any regard for the inUrtmiM 
or rights of the fK'Ople of tho«e Htat^fs. (>j\trd\\7/A power, or, in 
other words, an \u\]>f's'\ii\ form of government, contrary to ttie Con- 
stitution and system of laws handed down Ut uh by our forefathers 
when this government was f^:tabliHhed, and now we have the vast 
acr;urnulation of wealth in the hands of a few individuals at the ex- 
f>*ins/i of the maRseg, and thJB, with the evil designs of f>oliticians, 
the want of office, its emoluments and luxuries, with the increase; of 
jxjverty and crime, can result in nothing but riots, strikes, moU 
and hWxMifA and the final overthrow of the govemmrait. Com- 
mon fe/^nse tells us thin ; the history of the ris^; and downfall of some 
of the ]f:adinrr nations of the world t/;lls us this, but it is to Uj 



-34— 



hoped that the people of our country, with all of its varied inter- 
ests, will be able to understand this subject and overcome all these 
diflBculties in a peaceable, legitimate way, live under one flag and 
one sentiment, and enjoy the blessing of liberty, peace and prosper- 
ity, with just and equal rights to all and special privileges to none, 
and the man from the State of ]\Iaine can walk up to the man from 
the State of Texas, shake hands, and say, "We are friends." 




MONUMENT HOOD's BRIGADE. 
AT AUSTIN, TEXAS. 



lA 



-35— 



LIST OF MEMBERS 

OF 

Company I, Fourth Texas Infantry, Hood's Brigade, Longstreet's 
Corps, Confederate States Army of Northern Virginia. 



Organized at Corsicana, Texas, in July, 1861, and Mustered in at Harris- 
burg, near Houston, following August. 



1. C. M. Winkler, Captain. Died at Austin, Texas, May 13, 

1882. 

2. J. R. Longhridge, First Lieutenant. Disabled and resigned 

in 1863. 

3. J. E. Oglebie, Second Lieutenant. Resigned and returned to 

Texas in December, 1861. 

4. B. J. C. Hill, Third Lieutenant. Resigned and returned to 

Texas in December, 1861. 

5. Mat Beasley, Second Sergeant. Died in Navarro county, 

Texas, inYoOS. 

6. S. M. Riggs, Second Sergeant. Killed at battle of Chick- 

amauga, September 19, 1863. 

7. J. D. Caddell, Third Sergeant. Killed at Petersburg, 1865. 

8. W. G. Jackson, Fourth Regiment. Wounded and disalded 

October, 1864. 

PPIVATES. 

9. Austin, J. H. Disabled in battle of Chickamauga, Septem- 

ber, 1863. 

10. Allen, W. B. 

11. Armstrong, R. C. Died in hos])ital at Riclimond in 1861. 

12. Barry, A. In prison at surrender; captured at Chickamauga 

13. Barry, M. 

14. Beasley, J. R. Died in hospital, December, 1861. 

15. Beaslev, Jesse. Killed second battle of Manassas. 

16. Barnet. J. H. Died in January, 1862. 

17. Brewster, A. J. In prison at surrender. 

18. Bales, W. H. Disabled at battle of Gettysburg, July 2, 1863. 

19. Boynton, G. S. Discharged on account of bad health. De- 

cember, 1861. 

20. Black, James R. Discharged 1862 on account of old age. 

21. Black, H. F. Disabled and discharged in 1862. 

22. Bias, A. J. Died in 1863. 

23. Bishop, John. Died in 1863. 



—36— 

24. Crab, E. S. Disabled in second battle of Mana'ssas and dis- 

charged, 

25. Crabtree, J. W. 

26. Crawford, E. W. Eeturned to Texas in 1864. 

27. Carroll, \V. E. Killed at Cliickamanga September 19, 1863. 

28. Childress, B. F. Killed at Chickamanga September 20, 1863. 

29. Crossland, A. M. Woimded and disabled at Fort Harrison 

September 29, 1864. Died in Confederate Home at Aus- 
tin, April 21, 1909, 86 years old. 

30. Casady, J. M. Sick and discharged, old age. 

31. Dnran, J. W. 

32. Duncan, Ira P. Died in hospital at Richmond, December, 

1861. 

33. Dillard, F. P. Transferred. 

34. Dozier, . Killed in battle, date and place not known. 

35. Fondran, W. A. Killed at Gaines' Mill, June 27, 1862. 

36. Franklin, B. F. Eeturned to Texas in 1862. 

37. Fagan, Jas. G. Discharged. 

38. Fuller, W. W.. Discharged January, 1863. 

39. Fuller, Jas. L. Killed at Wilderness, May 6, 1864. 

40. Foster, J. A. Disabled and discharged in 1864. 

41. Foster, G. W. Disabled and discharged October 7, 1864. 

42. Foster, M. L. Died in hospital. 

43. Garner, E. M. Killed at battle of Antietam, or Sharpsburg, 

September 17, 1862. 

44. Green, J. T. Died in hospital, December, 1861. 

45. Green, John. Captured at battle of Chickamauga. 

46. Gragory, R. Account of old age and disability discharged. 

47. Gregory, John. Wounded, disabled and discharged. 

48. Herbert, J. H. Wounded second battle of Manassas, disabled 

and discharged. 

49. Holloway, E. G. 

50. Harrison, J. J. 

51. Harrison, H. H. 

52. Hill, Jack. Killed in September, 1864. 

53. Hill, J. H. Wounded at Antietam, September 17, 1862, and 

discharged. 

54. Halderman, J. W. 

55. Hagle, Joe. 

56. Henderson, G. W. 

57. Harris, J. Q. Killed at Gettysburg, July 2, 1863. 

58. Hamilton, J. D. Discharged. 

59. Hamilton, J. L. 

60. Harper, Frank. Died in hospital at Eichmond, 1861. 

61. Jefferson, W. E. Discharged at Eichmond in 1863. bad 

health.' 



—37— 

62. Jordan, I. C. Lost in retreat from Petersburg, April, 1865 

63. Killiani, H. L. ^Y. Woimded at Antietam, September 17, 

1862, and discharged. 
6-1. Kennedy, Thomas. Wounded and discharged in 1864. 

65. Knight, Tom. Transferred. 

66. Lemons, A. M. AVonnded and disabled, September, 1864. 

67. Lnmas, J. M. Disabled and discharged in 1862. 

68. Lanham, J. B. Woimded at Antietam, September 17, 1862, 

and discharged. 

69. Lea, . Lost at second battle of the Wilderness, May 6, 

1864. 

70. Miller, R. S. Captured at Gettysburg; in prison at close of 

war. 

71. Mills, N. J. Died at Corsicana, Texas, August 4, 1908. 

72. Massey, J. H. Wounded and disabled at Chickamauga, Sep- 

tember 20, 1863. 

73. Morris, T. R. Killed at second battle of Manassas. 

74. Mitchell, W. H. Discharged, 1862. 

75. McMorris, J. M. Died in hospital, December, 1861. 

76. Melton, L E. Transferred to band and litter bearers in 1863. 

77. Meador, A. L. Died in hospital at Richmond, December, 

186L 

78. Neal, J. H. Died in hospital at Richmond, December, ]861. 

79. Neal, Jeff. Died in hospital at Richmond, December, 1861. 

80. Piatt, W. G. Transferred. 

81. Pickett, John. Wounded at second battle of Manassas, and 

discharged February 5, 1865. 

82. Polk, J. M. Promoted and transferred in March, 1864. 

83. Osborn, Paddy. Discharged in 1861, bad health. 

84. Osborn, Sandv. Died in hospital. 

85. Orendorf, J. H. 

86. Pursley, T^wis. Died in 1861 or 1862. 

87. Pennington, C. Died in December, 1861. 

88. Rice, L. W. 

89. Rice, R. N. Died in hospital, December, 1861. 

90. Rushing, M. D. L. Died in hospital, December, 1861. 

91. Sessions, J. T. Died in hospital, 1861. 

92. Sessions, E. G. Discharged in 1862 on account of bad health. 

93. Smith, Pulasky. 

94. Smith, W. T. Killed at Gettysburg, July 2, 1863. 

95. Smith, W. G. Discharged in 1862, old age. 

96. Simmons, J. W. Discharged in December, 1862, bad health. 

97. Stokes, Cornelius. Killed, June 2, 1864. 

98. Stewart, J. D. Wounded and disabled battle of Gaines' Mill, 

June 27, 1863. 



—38— 

99. Spence, W. T. Killed at second battle of Manassas. 

100. Show, J. E. 

101. Terrell, S. B. Killed at Suffolk, February, 1863. 
103. Tenipleton, Wm. W. 

103. Tcmploton, N. B. Died in hospital, December, 1861. 

104. Threadwell, J. H. 

105. Utzman, J. L. Died in Brown county, Texas. 

106. Walker, J. C. Killed at Chickamauga, September 19, 1863. 

107. Walker, H. E. Killed at second battle of Wilderness, May 

6, 1864. 

108. Wade, R. H. Disal)led at battle of Gaines' Mill, and died 

in Dallas, Texas, May 13, 1909. 

109. Waters, Ezekial. Lost in East Tennessee, in 1864. 

110. AVarren, B. Discharged in 1863. 

111. Weil. Sol. Discharged in 1863. 

112. Welch, Mike. Discharged in 1863. 

113. Welch, John. 

114. Westbrook. H. H. Died in hospital in 1861. 

11.5. Westlirook, W. H. Died in hospital in December, 1862. 

116. Westbrook, Geo. Died in hospital in Virginia, 1862. 

117. Fortson, J. E. Eeturned to Texas in 1862. 

MEMBERS OF COMrANY I, FOURTH TEXAS, SURRENDERED AT 
APPOMATTOX. 

C. M. Winkler, Lieutenant Colonel, commanding Fourth Texas; 
N. J. jMills, First Lieutenant; John W. Duran, Second Lieuten- 
ant; E. G. Holloway. Fourth Sergeant; privates W. B. Allen, J. 
W. Crabtree, H. H. Harrison, J. J. Harrison, M. Barry, J. H. Oren- 
dorff, L. W. Eice, W. W. Templeton, J. H. Threadwell, J. E. Shaw, 
J. C. Welch, Pulasky Smith, Geo. Henderson, John W. Halde- 
man and J. L. Utzman. 

SURVIVORS OF COMPANY I, FOURTH TEXAS INFANTRY, C. S. A., AND 
TTTETR POSTOFFICE ADDRESSES, JANUARY 1, 1908. 

1. Dr. N. J. Mills, Corsicana, Texas. Died August 4, 1908, 77 

years old, 

2. John W. Duran, Corsicana, Texas. 

3. E. G. Sessions, Eice, Navarro county, Texas. 

4. John Pickett, Angus, Navarro county, Jexas. 

5. John W. Crabtree, Stone Point, Van Zandt county. Texas. 

6. Pulaskv Smith, Lafavette, Upshur county, Texas. 

7. E. S. Miller. Lufkin. Texas. 

8. W. H. Bales. Tjone Grove, Llano county, Texas. 

9. M. Barry. Marlin, Texas. 



—39— 

10. A. M. Crossland, Oklahoma. Died in Confederate Home, 

April, 1909, 86 years old. 

11. Geo. Henderson, Oklahoma. 

12. J. M. Polk, Confederate Home, Austin, Texas. 

13. W. G. Jackson, Confederate Home, Austin, Texas. 

14. E. 0. Holloway, Beard, Kentucky. 

15. J. H. Herbert, Brentwood, Tennessee. 

16. Albert Lemons, Fairfield, Texas. 

17. Jim Lumas, Navarro county, Texas. 

18. E. H. Wade, Wooten Wells, Falls county, Texas. Died at 

Dallas, Texas, May 13, 1909. 

19. W. W. Templeton, Cameron, Texas. 



—40- 



TEN YEARS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



Before we start out on our long journey of nearly eight thousand 
miles, I want to say a few words by way of preface to the young 
men and women of our country and future generations, and if what 
I have to say is of any benefit to them I have accomplished a good 
part of my mission. It is more or less natural in the whole human 
family to think that our lot is harder than anybody's, and that 
there is a better country somewhere else than where we are. And in 
order to gratify our curiosity and ambition for pleasure and profit 
we must go there if possible. There are some countries that offer 
inducements and advantages over others, of this there is no doubt, 
but you will find more differences in people than there is in coun- 
tries, and if all the evils or misfortunes that befall the human 
family were collected together and put in one pile and then dis- 
tributed equally between every man, woman and child in the world, 
wc would soon find that we would be better off with the evils or 
misfortunes that naturally befall us than what we would inherit by 
such a distribution. And the same rule would applv in the dis- 
tribution of wealth and the luxuries of this life. It would finally 
go back into its old channel. As some would say, "The money 
sharks would get it all." But in realitv it falls into the hands of 
those who are bom with a better sense of financial and business 
methods. 

We start from New York on the United States mail steamer Ad- 
vance the 15th of July, 1888. Put in at Newport News on the 
coast of Virginia to take on the mail and some freight. This is the 
last land we see in the United States, and for all we know the last 
that we may ever live to see again. The next port reached is the 
Island of St. Thomas, one of the Danish West India Islands five 
days and nights out from New York; and like all the West India 
Islands, they are mountains in the ocean, and some of them devilish 
high ones at that. Now, you would be surprised to see the native 
women here pick up their baskets that will hold about a bushel, and 
the little time it takes them to put four or five hundred tons of coal 
aboard the ship at one cent a basketful. We pass near the Island 
of Martinique. This is Avhere they have so many volcanoes, and 
you see so much said in the newspapers about it. It belongs to 
France. The steamer ])lows the whistle and tlie people wave their 
flags. But having no business, we do not stop. The next port 
reached is the Island of Barhadoes, about twelve or fifteen miles 
square, and I suppose 300,000 people on it. It belongs to England, 



—41— 

and is garrisoned by troops. The next port reached is Para, the 
mouth of the Amazon, and the first port on the coast of Brazil, a 
city of something over 50,000 people, about eight degrees south of 
the equator, and we are now about 3500 miles from New York. 
The principal articles of export here I think are India rubber, 
sugar, rice, tobacco and fine timber. This is not the latitude for 
coffee nor cotton, as it is too near the equator. It would make fine, 
large trees, but the coffee beans would decay and fall before they 
matured, and the same way with cotton. Of course the cotton would 
not fall off like the coffee, but it would be a short staple stuff and 
only fit for mattresses, if anything. Now, from this explanation 
you can form an idea whether cotton can be produced in a tropical 
country or not. Another peculiarity about Para, they always have 
a shower of rain about 12 or 1 o'clock every day, and its as regular 
as clockwork, and I don't think that anybody has ever been able to 
tell the cause of it. When people here make an agreement to meet 
for any purpose they always say before or after the shuva ; sliuva 
is the Portuguese word for rain. So the days and nights are both 
cool and pleasant; you need a blanket over you at night or you 
would not sleep very much. We lay here two days and nights about 
half a mile from shore. I see people going back and forth in small 
boats, but when I see the sharks coming up to the top of the water 
occasionally I feel better aboard the ship, for they could turn one 
of them boats bottom side up if they wanted to. They don't look 
very handsome; the head seems to be the largest part about them. 
I was talking to an x4,merican who said he had been three or four 
hundred miles up this river, and said that he had seen cane seventy- 
five feet high, that would hold one quart of water in each joint, and 
the best water he ever drank. I have seen cane twenty-five and 
thirty feet high twenty-five hundrd miles south of here. It might 
be of some interest to state that the onl way you can toll wlien you 
arrive at the mouth of the Amazon is by the muddy water mixing 
with the ocean, for it is said to be about one hundred and twenty- 
five miles wide at the mouth'. 

The next port reached is Mieanham, a city of about 50,000 peo- 
ple; not a very important point for trade, but is headquarters for 
the Catholic Church. These people are all Catholics, and you can 
see the likeness of St. John everywhere you go, and a word from 
the priest is the law with most of them. The next port reached is 
Purnambuke, or Purnambuco, as we call it. The native pilot comes 
out to meet us, as they do at all ports. Supposed to be 100.000 
people here. A natural rock wall surrounds most of the harbor, and 
the tide coming in and going out rolls over this wall and it can be 
heard a long ways off; the tide has Jnst gone out, and I can see 
that the pilot in front of the captain's bridge is very much excited. 
But fortunately one of the passengers understands his language. 



—42— 

and says to the captain: "The pilot says that you are drawing 
twenty-two feet of water, and the tide has jnst gone out, and if you 
don't stop this ship you will get on a sandhar and lose the ship and 
all the cargo. But if you will wait one hour until the tide comes 
in you can then go into port in safety." "Oh, they ought to send 
some one out here that I can understand." "But the pilot says that 
if 3'ou expect to do business with these people, you must learn the 
language. You miglit as well l)e deaf and dumb as to try to get 
along in this country without being able to speak and understand 
the Portuguese or Spanish language." 

The next port reached is Bahia. This city is said to have a 
population of over 100,000. It is on a high hill, you might say a 
mountain, and it is impossible to see the city from the deck of the 
ship. It overlooks a bay that seems to be large enough for all the 
ships of the world. We anchor out in the bay, and some of the 
natives come aboard to help discharge the cargo ; and, as usual, the 
mate on the ship is a verv cross kind of a man. He says to one of 
them, "Roll that barrel around here." "No foz moll."' "Moll the 
devil and Tom Walker, roll that barrel around here." ISTo foz moll 
means, that don't make any difference, but as neither one under- 
stands the other, it's a stand-off. He then turns around to one of 
the Irish sailors and says, "Pat, take hold of the end of that rope." 
"There's no end to it, sir; the end has Ijeen cut off." That's an- 
other stand-off. 

The next port reached is Bio de Janeiro, the capital of Brazil, 
and a city of 800,000 people. It is down under the hills on the 
l)ay; you can only see the top of these hills back_of the city on a 
clear day, for they seem to reach nearly to the skies. You ^vould 
be surprised to see the number of steamships and sailing vessels 
coming in and going out of these ports ; and it seems that not one 
out of twenty-five carries the United States flag. I find that we 
are a great people in our own estimation and the United States is 
a great country, as long as we are in the limits of it; but when 
we get out of it we are small fry, especially in the matter of trade 
and commerce. T find that Brazil, from the best information I 
can gather, with a population of not less than 20.000,000. sells the 
world over $200,000,000 worth of produce annually ; and the most 
of this vast trade goes to Europe, on account of restrictions in our 
trade regulations. 

The next port reached is Santos, the end of our voyage, and 
about 6000 miles from New York; the next is Paranagua, and the 
next St. Catherine. You will notice Brazil fronts on the Atlantic 
Ocean nearly 4000 miles and nearly three thousand back — about 
the same amount of territorv as the United States — but will sup- 
port more people, because its a more productive country and a 
better climate. Much of its territory has never been explored by a 



white man. Santos is not a very large place, and I don't suppose 
ever will be, on account of its unhealthy location. The population 
is about twenty or twenty-five thousand. As to whether it ships 
more coffee than Eio, I do not know; but it will always be con- 
sidered one of the leading coffee ports of the world, as well as other 
export and import trade which is tributary to it. 

We start out from Santos to San Paulo, a distance of about sixty 
miles from the coast, and it is said to have a population of 150,000 
or 200,000, and about 3000 feet above the level of the sea. The 
first twelve or fifteen miles after leaving Santos is a low, flat coun- 
try; then we commence to go up the mountains. Now you would 
be surprised to see the cars go up these mountains at the rate of 
twenty miles an hour. We find stationary engines posted on the 
side of the railroad every three or four miles with wire cables at- 
tached, and in this way the cars are drawn up the mountains. But 
I suppose if one of these cables should break we would go down 
this mountain at the rate of a hundred miles an hour, until we 
jumped the track. Though in all my travels on railroads in Brazil 
I don't think I ever heard of a serious accident. In our country, 
if a train runs off the track and kills and cripples fifty or a hun- 
dred people, the wreck is cleared away, the dead are buried, and 
wounded sent to the hospitals, and it is published in the news- 
papers, and that's the end of it. But I understand that if such a 
thing should happen in Brazil, every official connected with the 
road would go to the penitentiary for life; and for this reason, I 
suppose, we never hear of a railroad accident. I find San Paulo to 
be an up-to-date city, with all modern improvements ; at least they 
seem to keep up with the tide better than most of the Latin race 
of people; and it seems to be the liome of the wealthy and aristo- 
cratic element and as fine a dressed people as you see anywhere. In 
this, as well as in other cities and towns of Brazil, you find soldiers 
as well as policemen ; and if a wagon or buggy runs over anybody 
you see a policeman on the street with his club ready to knock the 
driver off his seat, and for this reason people are seldom hurt on 
the streets. In our country it is just the reverse ; it's almost an 
everyday occurrence for some one to be hurt on the streets of our 
cities. Here the rights of the people generally seem to be as well 
protected as any other country. I find some Americans here, but 
less than any other nationality. I find another thing that we are 
not prepared to l>elieve, and that is less feeling of fellowship 
among Americans you meet in a foreign country than any other 
class of people in the world. 

Our diplomatic and consular officers put in their time well and 
draw their pay; but I have never yet heard of them doing much 
for their country or people, or asserting their rights or making 
any effort to improve our trade relations, which is so much needed. 



— 44— 

These appointments are generally made as a reward for campaign 
services or sonic kind of favoritism, without regard for their quali- 
fications or knowledge of the language or the people. San Paulo 
is a junction of railroads and a distributing point for all branches 
of trade. We go from San Paulo to Campinas, a city of about 
35,000 people, and another junction of railroads, surrounded by 
hills, and not a very healthy location ; but, like San Paulo, tribu- 
tary to many of the large coffee farms. We go from here to Santa 
Barbara. This is where the Americans settled soon after our Civil 
War. ]\Iost of them were from the Southern States ; but not many 
of them are here now; some of them went back to the United 
States, some died, and others after learning the language, moved to 
different parts of the country. There is good agricultural lands 
here and level enough to plow, and that attracted the Americans. 
But it is not a coffee country; the people turn their attention 
mostly to provision crops and stock, but better country for stock 
is found in other parts of Brazil than this. I was not here long 
before I noticed about thirty or forty people going along the road 
on foot, and seeming to be in a great hurry, carrying a dead body 
to a graveyard on a stretcher. They take it by turns; that's the 
custom of this country. If they live twenty-five miles from the 
cemetery, they must go there, or to some place where the ground 
has been blessed by the priest. Then one or two days out of almost 
every week is a saint's day, and they firmly believe that snakes will 
bite them or some serious accident will happen to them if they 
work on these days. 

It is my purpose to give you some idea of the customs and habits 
of these people, their methods of doing everything, the realities of 
life, and the general appearance of the country, its resources, cli- 
mate and seasons. All from actual observation made in ten years 
and in a plain, simple manner, and instead of commenting on re- 
ports from newspaper correspondents and others, I will try to add 
something to it; or, in other words, commence w^here they left off. 
This, you know, is a progressive world, and as the people of other 
countries make advances in the way of modern improvements, these 
people try to keep np with the tide; and it is well they may, for 
they have as much or more interest at stake from the simple fact 
that they have more to do and more undeveloped country than per- 
haps any other part of the world, and it will finally be a country 
of vast resources Avhich will interest all classes of people. 

We are now at Santa Barbara, and it is the month of September, 
1888. I can hear something that sounds like the whistle of a steam- 
ship, and it's a long ways off. I find that it is a native cart — all 
wood, no iron about it — and will carry about 3000 pounds. The 
yokes are light ; they use small poles and rawhide instead of chains, 
as we do, and from six to eight yoke of oxen; the axle turns under 



—45— 

the frame of the cart instead of the wheels, and it is the friction of 
the axle under the frame of the cart that makes the noise. We see 
the driver going along the road punching the oxen with a little pole 
that has a sharp nail in the end about an inch long when they don't 
go to suit him, he says, "Bum, Oh, de arbar." Well, de arbar is 
their curse word and means, "Oh, the devil." But an American 
woman who has just arrived and don't understand their language 
says she never saw so many oxen hitched to a wagon in all her life, 
and they call them all be arbar. Another American woman, who 
thought she had picked up Portuguese enough to get along, took her 
seat at the table of a hotel ; she wanted a spoon to stir her coffee, and 
instead of calling for a kuyey, said she wanted a carvolly, or in other 
words she wanted a horse to stir her coffee. Did vou ever think of 




the disadvantage you labor under to be in country where you don't 
understand enough of the language to ask for your dinner or a 
drink of water? If you never did, you ought to try it once; you 
will learn something. No difference how well you are educated in 
your own country, you are nothing here unless you can speak the 
language; and if you are over 50 years old you will never learn 
to speak it or any other foreign language well. If you can speak 
Spanish, Italian or French, you can learn Portuguese, on account 
of its similarity. 

It is a notorious and well-established fact in the everyday walks 
of life that where one man fails another, under similar circum- 
stances, will succeed ; and this fact was plainly demonstrated in two 
cases w^hich I will refer to. In the year 1865 or 1866 Charles 



—46— 

Gunter came to this country from Montgomer)', Ala., I understand, 
with more money than any other American, and from all accounts 
he was a good business man and a good trader in his o\vn country. 
But here it was a new deal to him ; he was too old to learn the lan- 
guage and the strange methods of doing everything. The result 
was he lost his money and died a pauper. While John Cole, a jolly 
old soul, and about 65 years old, came here from South Carolina. 
He was a farmer and a man that looked at everything in a plain, 
practicable and sensible kind of way, and nobody could get any 
money out of him until he had value received. He succeeded well 
and made money, but he never learned but one word of the Portu- 
guese language, and that was "Star bum." Everything was "Star 
bum" with him. "Star bum" in our language means that is all 
right. He was a good-natured kind of a man, but a very profane 
man or wicked man. Some of the natives rode up to his house one 
day and called him out, and said to him in Portuguese, of course 
that the dogs had run a deer through his cotton field and they 
wanted permission to follow tlie dogs on their horses. Of course 
he had no more idea what they were talking about than the man in 
the moon, but he yelled out at the top of his voice, "Star bum, 
senor ! Star bum." Well, they thought it was all right, so away 
they went on their horses through the cotton field, knocking the 
cotton off as they went. Now, what he said to them in English 
M^ould never do to repeat before a Sunday school class, but as neither 
understood the other it was another stand-off. He had one child, 
a girl, and left her in South Carolina. He had lost his wife. \Yhen 
the girl was old enough, she married and she and her husband went 
to Brazil to pay the old man a visit. They had only been there 
about two weeks when she went to him one day and said, "Father, 
we want to go back to South Carolina ; we don't like this country." 
He ripped out an oath and said all right. "I will give you $10,000 
in gold if you will leave here and never come back." Well, that 
was "Star bum" for that was what they went after. The next year 
he sold out and went back to South Carolina and only lived a short 
time, but he was nearly 90 years old. 

From Santa Barbara we go to Moggy l\Iiram, Mooshe, f<s we 
would pronounce it, with a soft accent on the last syllable. This 
is another junction of the railroad. I don't know the population, 
but from appearance there must be 10,000 or 15,000 people here. 
Only two men here who can understand one word of our language. 
It is a great coffee country and wealthy people living in and around 
the place. From here we go to Penha, or Penya, as we would pro- 
nounce it, the terminus of one of these railroads. Here T see the 
first troop of pack mules T ever saw. 11 is tlieir principal moans of 
transportation over this mountainous country, where they have no 
railroads. You see almost every day fifty to one hundred pack 



—47— 

mules with 250 pounds of coffee to the mule, or the same amount 
of merchandise, going along the roads to and from market, or to 
the railroad stations. With some difficulty, on account of ni}- not 
knowing how to talk, I find one family of Americans here from 
the State of j\lississippi. 

We go from here to Jackitinga in the province, or State, of 
Minas, or Menus, as they pronounce it, and by accident on the 
road I find Dr. James Warren, who came to this country in 1865 
from Nashville, Tenn. Think he said he was a surgeon in the Con- 
federate army, and find him a very intelligent and social kind of 
a man. He met me at the door and I said to him that I was an 
American, just arrived. "Glad to see you, sir; come in. I sup- 
pose you don't understand the language." "No, sir, not enough 
to hardly ask for a drink of water." Well, I have been in this 
country so long and it is so seldom that I meet an American, I can 
express myself better in Spanish or Portuguese than I can in 
English." Now according to the custom among all classes of peo- 
ple here (in fact they look upon it as a mark of politeness), the 
girl comes in with a waiter and some coffee and cakes. You must 
drink coffee with them, light your cigarette or pi]>e and smoke; then 
if you don't know how to talk, you soon feel like it is better to be 
alone than in such company. We then talk a few minutes, his wife 
comes in, he speaks to her and tells her that I can speak no Portu- 
guese. She makes a polite bow, and walks out ; she is a native, and 
wealthy, has a large coffee farm, coffee mill and sugar mill. They 
have four children, two sons and two daughters, all grown. Dinner 
is announced; we go in and sit down. The doctor and T talk, and 
they occasionally ask him what we are talking about. They seem 
to be very much interested, but don't understand us. Dinner is 
over, I bid the doctor good-bye and travel on to Jackitinga, and 
find some American friends from Texas. 

This is nearly all a luountainous countr\', more timber on the 
mountains than there is in our valleys, and much of it is impossible 
to walk through, much less ride through, Avithout a hack knife. 
The land is mostly red, or Terra de Kose, as they call it. If you 
find any open country you find more grass on one acre than you 
ever saw on ten in our country, and much of the timbered country 
the sun never shines on. No winter nor summer, neitlier hot nor 
cold. Not frost enough to hardly check the growth of vegofalion; 
the leaves on the trees green the whole year round. Drouths, 
snow and ice and failures in crops is something that is unknown 
in many parts of Brazil. No muddv water; you never go five miles 
that you don't cross a beautiful clear, running stream of water; 
in fact, goins: from the United States to Brazil is like going out 
of one world into another. Nothing you see resembles anything 
you ever saw before. Now, to further illustrate, a ship is lying 



in the bay at Rio at night; the moon is shining bright, and one of 
the Irish sailors says to another : "Now, Mike, do you suppose this 
is the same moon we have in the old country ?" "Oh, what m the 
devil are you talking about, man; it is a different moon alto- 
gether." Everything is different in this country. If I remember 
correctly, Frank Carpenter said, in speaking of our people who 
traveled over Europe every year for profit and pleasue, to say 
nothing of the vast amount of money they spend, that they could 
see more here in one day than they could in a month of Sundays 







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an Europe. Well, I will just raise him a bean and say a lifetime. 
I have often thought I would like to see some of our people here 
who think they have seen heavy timber, and see some parova trees 
and logs that I have seen lying on the ground here. I think they 
would give it up. And then there arc the different kinds of flowers, 
fruits, animals, and birds that you see in the virgin forest, that you 
see in no other country. Parova is a hard, heavy wood ; the natives 
use it for lumber in building houses, and it seems to me it would 
be the finest timber in the world for cross-ties for railroads, for it 



— i9— 

is said one of these logs will lie on the ground for fifty years and 
then be as sound as ever. 

From Jackitinga we go to Sorocaba; about 8000 or 10,000 peo- 
ple here ; then to Boituva. This is not a coffee country ; it is mostly 
stock and provision crops. I see cows here larger than our heef 
steers, and the largest hogs I ever saw in my life; horses and mules 
about like ours. Sweet potatoes — you can sit down on one end and 
roast the other in the fire. Did you ever see a lizard four feet 
long ? I think I have seen them five feet long. I was talking with 
a young man who came here from Alabama, and asked him if these 
lizards ever offered to fight. He said you ought to step on their 
tail once; you will find out then how they fight. He went on to 
say that when these people cut down the timber and bum it off to 
plant that leaves their holes exposed, and the boys put the dogs 
after them and cut him off from his hole, and he backs himself up 
against a log, and if he ever hits the dog one lick with his tail he 
not only makes the fur fly, but makes the blood come and that is 
the last time that dog will ever bark at a lizard, much less run 
after him. It is great fun for the boys, but it is rough on the dog. 
The natives eat these lizards. The meat is white and looks nice, 
and they say it is "Mouncha bum" — that is, very good. 

We stop at Boituva and make two crops of cotton. The first year 
we plant the seed, the next year we cut the stalks down and make 
more from the stump of the stalk than we did from the seed. We 
make more cotton with less labor than we do in our country, but 
the grade is not so good as American cotton. We sell it to the fac- 
tories at Sorocaba and Tatey at about two and a half cents per 
pound in the seed, and it is made up into the lower grades of goods, 
the seed seems to degenerate, the natives plant the seed every three 
years. I suppose further south the climate is better adapted to it 
and will make a better grade of cotton, say in the State of Parana, 
Matagras, and Eio Grande de Sul. These people are making im- 
provements in the culture of cotton as well as everything else. 
This is south of the equator, and the further south you go the 
cooler it gets. The coolest weather we have is in the month of 
July, and the warmest weather is in January. 

We go from Boituva to Botucatu, now on the terminus of the 
Sorocaba Railroad, but it has since been extended to Eio Naova, 
with other branches running into different parts of the country. 
Botucatu seems to have a population of 8000 or 10,000 and is a 
distributing point for trade of all kinds, as well as a junction of 
railroads. Nearly all a coffee country and a great many wealthy 
people around the place, and it is mostly a mountainous country 
and red land. Occasionally yoti find a campo, or prairie, black 
land, well watered, and horses and cattle on it. 

We go from Botucatu to San Jao de Itatinga, or Etattinga, as 



-50— 



these people pronounce it, and it is likeh* many other parts of the 
country- I liave never been in; it is a solid body of coffee farms. 
1 never had any idea before that there Avas so much coffee consumed 
in the world. I understand that the crop of Brazil amounts to 
about 8,000,000 or 10,000,000 sacks a year. Now, this, say $15 a. 
sack, then add the India rubber, fine timber, rpw sugar, rice, to- 
bacco, guano and hides, you have an idea what Brazil sells the 
world, and with tlie undeveloped country will increase every year. 
I think you will find that we pay these people $.",0,000,000 or $60,- 
000,000 every year for coffee, and if we get anything like a rea- 
sonable share of this vast trade it seems to me that I could have 
seen more American goods here in ten years, but Europe controls 
the trade of this country, as well as the banking business, railroads 




Monjola, where the natives make Fireina, a substitute for Bread. 



and factories. Italy furnishes a large amount of the labor. This 
is the situation and will continue to be imtil our Congress at Wash- 
ington takes some step to negotiate commercial treaties with this 
and other countries, with such a uniform system of export and im- 
port duties as will compete with other countries in the matter of 
trade and commerce. But some of our members of Congress will 
tell you tbat if the United States had a Chinese wall one mile high 
all around it we would not suffer a day for anything, for we have 
everything we need. That would have been a very good argument 
one hundred years ago when the products of our countrs' supplied 
the wants of the people, but it is different now, and with tbe in- 
crease in our population wnll lie more so hereafter, and not only 
that, when you lioar a man talking that way you can nearly always 



—51— 

put it down as a fact that it is cither ignorance or he and his fam- 
ily are provided for in some way out of the public treasury. The 
best way to make a man show an interest or feeling of fellowship 
for his country'man is to take his salary or money away from him, 
and reduce him to want or moderate circumstances; that will make 
him sociable when everything else fails, or at least he will enter- 
tain very different views. I have paid here 20 cents a yard for cot- 
ton goods that sell on the New York market for -5 cents ; $3.50 for 
a fifty-pound sack of flour, and $3 for Collins' axes with handles. 
One of our two-horse wagons, I think, sells here for $135, and one 
of our double-turning plows with trace chains and single-trees for 
$25, and hundreds of other things I could mention. But still this 
trade is not worth our attention. In this country the government 
issues the money direct to the people. In our country the banks i 
issue the money and the government endorses the banks and they ' 
are called national banks. These people know but little about the 
arts of statecraft or politics, as we understand it. Like all the 
Latin races, their issues, if they have any, are about men instead 
of principles. They go through all the formalities of elections, but 
the officials put out the candidates. The Delegarda is the judge, 
sheriff and the district clerk. They have about the same road laws 
as we have. When a man dies, 18 per cent of his property goes to 
the government, and when real estate is sold the govermnent gets 
6 per cent of the purchase money; so there are no general tax laws 
like ours. You seldom see the sheriff, tax collector or candidates 
for office. The price of land de]>ends upon the locality and con- 
venience to market, from 40 cents to $2 an acre. The quantity is 
about the same all over the country. Coffee is checked off twenty 
feet each way, 325 trees to the acre, and after it is five years old 
is valued at 50 cents a tree until it is fifty years old. Though it 
is considered a net income to the owner, all this time of say, one 
year with another, 30 cents or 35 cents a tree. The people have 
pastures for their cattle and horses and pens for their hogs, so it is 
not necessary to have fences around their farms as we do. 

We will now change the subject a little. I want to tell you 
something about the custom and habits of these people. I have 
already said something about their saints' days. The 25th of June 
with them is like the 25th of December with us; it is St. John's 
Day. Sunday is like a saint's day with them. Then they have 
their festivals. Among the Carboca, or lower class, you will see the 
men rig up their pack saddles with two large baskets on each .side; 
this they call a colgary. They put the children in these baskets. 
You see the women going along the road on foot before the pack 
horses, and the men on a horse behind; now they are going to a 
festival. The wealthy people all ride. They get together in the 
towns and cities, run horse races, play cards, fight chickens, send up 



—53— 

skyrockets, and yell at the tojD of their voices, "Viva A^iva visum- 
bora de arbar." They run the devil out of the countr}- so the corn 
and beans will come up and the coffee will make more. They drink 
"pinga" at these festivals, but they are not much on the fight like 
our people. Then they are very polite ; if they meet you forty times 
in a day, they speak to you, and when they go to leave you they tell 
you, "Bum tellogger," or good-bye. 

I will now tell. you how these people plant coffee as well as corn 
and other provision crops. If a man wants to cut down fifteen or 
twenty acres of timber to plant, he will go around and invite all 
his neighbors to a dinner and dance at night, festival. He will get 
two or three jugs of "pinga" or rum, some flour, meat, sugar and 
rice and will pay them, say, one milrey each in money. Tliey ap- 
point a day, and they all come in with their forshes and axes, fifty 
or a hundred of them, if necessary, and cut the timber dowm. This 




Gathering Coffee. 

is in the month of June or July, the dry season of the year, and by 
September or October, the planting season, it's all dry and ready to 
burn, and such a fire as it makes, witli the popping of the cane, I 
do not think any of our people have ever seen, unless it was a large 
city on fire. Then it takes five or six days for the ground to cool 
off. Then they go into it with their corn and pumpkin seed and 
carvidarys and punch holes in the ground and plant; this is all 
they do to it, and they make more corn on one acre of ground 
without hoeing or plowing than I ever saw in our country. Then 
after the corn is planted, if they want to plant coffee on the land, 
they check the ground ofi' carefully with a chain twenty feet each 
way, and put up a stake. They dig a hole with a grubbing hoe at 
these stakes about ten inches deep. Next the "fa to," or overseer, 
on the place comes along and drops a few coffee beans in these holes 
and rakes a little dirt on them, and lays some sticks over the top of 



—53— 

the holes for sliade; then it is four or five months before tlic coffee 
comes up, and imtil it begins to make limits it looks like cotton. 
In two years they are waist high; in three years you see a little 
coffee on them, but not enough to pay until they are five years old. 
All this time corn, beans and other provision crops are planted in 
the coffee land by the hands who treat the coffee. Tliey commence 
to gather coffee in June or July, and finish in December or Janu- 
ary, and they pay from 10 to 15 cents a bushel foi gathering. They 
take a brush, broom or rake and clean off the ground under the 
trees and strip the coffee off on the ground, and by the use of iron 
sifters they get the rocks and dirt out of the coffee, put it in a pile 
at the end of the row, and when they have forty or fifty bushels 
the cart comes along, measures up the coffee and gives them a 
ticket. Saturday evening the bell taps and the boss counts their 
tickets and gives them their money, less what they are due the boss 
for provisions. Sunday they go to town, play cards, run horse 
races, get drunk, or do anything they want to do. Gathering coffee 
is not as hard work as gathering cotton. The natives often plant 
tobacco in the young coffee fields, and here you see the largest 
tobacco leaves you see anywhere in the world. Coffee generally 
blooms out in Ueceml)er, and the blooms and leaves resemble a 
honeysuckle more than anything I can think of. It is a beautiful 
sight to see 100,000 coffee trees in full bloom; then if they have 
three days without a hard rain and wind this will give the bloom 
ample time to set on, and they get a full crop, otherwise the crop is 
short. Coffee generally makes a full crop one year and a half a 
crop the next. The cause of this I do not know, and don't suppose 
anyone else does. If the boss comes along and finds an orange tree 
or lemon or sweet potato vines in his coffee he makes the hands cliop 
them down — don't want them in his coffee. You often see an 
orange or lemon tree loaded with nice fruit dumped into the creek. 
The nicest fruit you find in the virgin forest is the "jackatacarba." 
It is black and slick and about the size of a hen of!;ii, and sticks to 
the limb or body of the tree until it is ripe. Then there is the 
"almasha" and bananas, the largest you ever saw, and "buckichuse,'* 
or pineapples, as we call them. 

I never will forget the night of the 13th of September, 1892, in 
Brazil. They had what they call a "shuva de pedro" — we call it 
a hail storm — but I don't suppose the oldest citizen ever saw any- 
thing like it. Of course, the people were very much excited, and 
some of them thought the end of time had come. The next morn- 
ing we could see the coffee was knocked off the trees and rolled in 
piles and some of it washed into the creeks and branches. In some 
places the vards were full of coffee, and I have no doubt there were 
coffee farm's that lost $15,000 or $20,000 worth of coffee in twenty 
minutes. And the large trees Iving across the roads in tlio timber 



-o4 



made iheiii iiiipassaljle for some time. We could see signs of it in 
the coffee fields for twelve months. 

I will tell you what a "bish"' is. It is an insect that looks more 
like a flea than anything I can think of; it gets under your toe 
nails or finger nails and lays an egg, and makes him a sack and 
hatches out some little "bishes."' The next day if you don't take 
the point of your knife and pick him out he will give you trouble. 
To avoid all this you must sweep out your house regularly and 
bathe your feet in warm water every night. If you don't know 
what a "baranah" is, you would not be in Brazil long before yon 
would find out. A green fly will light on you and get under your 
clothing and Jay an egg on your arm or some part of the body, and 
in a few days you feel something that stings like an ant, and they 
get to be troublesome, and I have seen Americans who had been in 




the <-ountry twenty years and never knew how to get rid of them. 
I had been in the country about four years when I found one on my 
ann that was giving me a great deal of trouble. I rolled up my 
shirt sleeve and one of the natives looked at it and said "sparum- 
poke," or "hold on." He went into the house and took his pipe 
and ran a straw through the stem and came out with a live coal of 
fire and some amber out of the pipe stem. He rubbed a little amber 
on it and dried it with his coal of fire, and two applications made 
him deathlv sick. He took hold of my arm and squeezed it out, 
and it was a little hair\^ worm with a large head. They get on the 
cattle and dogs, but on horses and mules the hide is too tough for 
them. 

Those ]ieople are very liberal in the way of credit, but as a rule 
all classes have to pay their deists. In our country it is a hard 



—55— 

matter to collect a debt from a man who owns no property subject 
to execution under the laws. It is different here. If a man be- 
comes dissatisfied where he is at work and goes to some other coffee 
farmer, the boss always asks him how much he owes at the other 
place. He tells him and says all right. He writes a note to the 
boss on the other place to make out his account and send it to him 
and he will pay it, as he has emplo^^ed one of his hands. While 
there is no law to compel them to do this way, custom makes it 
right, and I suppose it will always be so in this country. Passports 
are not essential in entering Brazil, but it always costs you a little 
to leave the country. As for the investment of capital, I don't sup- 
pose that there is a country in the world, or ever will be, that offers 
more inducements and a better prospect for profit. There are no 
labor troubles, or labor organizations, and I don't suppose ever 
will be. 

As for what trade or profession has the best chance of success in 
a country like that, one of onr lawyers would have no sliow without 
a thorough knowledge of the language and laws, and for one of our 
doctors to get a certificate to practice medicine, that is a difficult 
matter on account of the examinations he would have to stand; 
but if he is a dentist and understands his profession, that will al- 
ways be a good business here, for the prices they charge for such 
work he can afford to get some one to talk for him until he can 
understand what "Entra star pronta" means, or, come in and take 
a seat in the chair, all ready, and it don't take long to learn that. 

Our missionaries seem to have a good time; they live well and 
have nothing much to do. The natives are all Catholics and say they 
are needed more in their own country than here, but I am not very 
well posted abont that business. 

This is a healthy country. . If you pay strict attention to the 
rules of health you will live to a good old age. I have known people 
to come here with consumption and get well, but with a case of 
rheumatism it is jnst the reverse. I understand an Englishman 
about 75 years old came here; he was a telegraph operator and 
kncAV nothing else, and as English money runs all the railroads, 
factories and banks, he thought, of course, he would have no trouble 
in finding employment as soon as he landed. The idea never oc- 
curred to him that he would have to telegraph in Portuguese, but 
they gave him a job keeping gate at some railroad station. If he 
had been an American he would have been compelled to go on some 
coffee farm to gather and hoe coffee or go back to England, if he 
conld get back. 

We start back to the United States on the 26th day of ]\ray. 1898. 
and leave Eio on the steamer "Galileo" the 4th of June. The war 
is going on with Spain. This is an English ship ; American ships 
are all laid up, put in at Bahia for coffee and other freight. The 



—56— 

next port reached is Purnainbiike. We are drawing about twenty- 
five feet of water, too much to go into the harbor. We lay outside 
and the barges come out. The ship had about 25,000 sacks of 
coffee aboard, besides other freight. They lav planks down on this 
coffee and roll mahogany logs, guano, hides and other freight down 
on them. Wc put in at the Island of St. Lucia for coal, and land 
in New York tiie 23rd of June, 1898, just nineteen days from Eio. 

I will now say for the satisfaction of all Avho may want to know 
something about the expense of such a trip as this, thit we never 
get too old to learn.- When I went to Brazil I paid $435 in gold 
from New York to Santos for myself, wife and son about 9 years 
old, on an American ship, saloon, or first-class passage. Came back 
on an English ship, second-class, and from Rio to New York I paid 
$135 in gold, and I will say that I can see but very little differ- 
ence between second-class fare on an English ship and first-class 
on an American ship, but to learn all this we must do like I did — 
go and try it. I think you will find that the $300 saved will be of 
some benefit to you some time. The English people have more 
system and order on their ships than our people do. Second-class 
fare on an American ship is like a pen. 

I understand that our people are making some improvements in 
this branch of business. I hope they are, for there is great room 
for it. June ot July is the proper time to make such a trip; then 
you are less exposed to storms on the ocean or epidemics on the 
coast of South America. If I was going to make the trip again, 
with my experience, instead of waiting in a hotel in New York 
three weeks, as I did, for the regular mail steamer for Rio, I would 
take the first good ship from New York to Southampton or Liver- 
pool, second-class, unless I had money to throw at birds, and from 
there to Rio. As for your money, United States currency is good 
at a discount, or you can put your gold into a belt and put around 
you, but either way you run the risk of being robbed on the road, 
or lose your money by some accident. Then you can get exchange 
in New York on Liverpool or London, which is good in South 
America, but remember that unless you have the original and 
duplicate, the first and the second, Avhen you present it to the banks 
at Rio or St. Paulo, they will ask you where the second is. You 
tell them the second is in the hands of the liank at New York. 
They will say, how do we know but that the second has been pre- 
sented and paid ; we don't want it. Present the first and second 
and we will pay it. Everything is done on the old English bank- 
ing system, and unless you have your exchange in that kind of 
shape it is M'orthless in South America. I have no advise to offer 
any of our people to go to a foreign country, nor do I ever expect 
to, for that is a serious matter, but if I was young and had my life 
to live over and had the means to do something on mv own account 



—57— 

and knowing the country and methods of doing everything as I 
do, and was disposed to try ray fortune in a new country, I would 
not hesitate to go to Brazil. It is not expected tliat this informa- 
tion will he interesting to old jjeople wlio have fought the battle of 
life and are contented with their surroundings, and sensible of the 
fact that we get nothing out of this world except what we eat, drink 
and wear. It is intended for young people and future generations 
who are in a condition and disposed to try their fortunes in a new 
country. I have given them the facts, the advantages as well as 
the objections, and the difficulties they would have to contend with, 
and it is for them to determine wliether or not tliey would bettor 
their condition in life by such a move. 



THE END. 



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•,D 



7 4 "^ 



An old friend of Mr. Bahn, the genial manager of the G. A. Bahn Optical and 
Diamond Company, whose office is in Austin, Texas, once came to him for an ad- 
vertisement. 

The first question Mr. Bahn asked his friend was, "What have you got in the 
way of a medium?" His friend thereupon explained his scheme, which was a 
little story book, upon the inside cover of which a chosen few would be permitted 
to place announcements extolling their wares to the numerous readers of the 
book, Mr. Bahn thereupon explained to his friend that the corporation of which 
he was the manager would not permit him to use the company's money for any 
other advertising except that appearing in tlie local daily papers, but that he, 
Bahn, would esteem it a privilege to be allowed to give some of the readers a 
little personal advice, as that was the easiest thing to give. 

Remember this is for anybody that cares to read it, and what's more, it is not 
original, as it was communicated to Mr. B. confidentially by an old Chinaman 
who claimed to have had it direct from Confucius himself. 

If you have an easy job, and the boss gets out of humor, and kicks you out, 
quit him immediately, don't delay a moment. 

Some of your friends may tell you tliat the proper thing would be to argue 
the matter with him, to take him out and buy him a drink, or get him a good 
cigar and then ask for a raise in salary, but don't you do it. 

Take the advice of an old man who has passed the fiftieth mile-post, and who 
has been to Pflugerville, Manor, Manchaca, Marble Falls, Bertram, and other 
large cities, and consequently knows what he is talking about. 

And then don't go back to work for that boss again, try some other place. It's 
the easiest thing in the world for any one, even a one-armed man, to get a job, 
providing he don't ask for a salary, and is willing to work twelve hours a day, 
and board the boss and his family. 

Some bosses are never satisfied; they are most unreasonable, and never give 
a man but one run for his money, and that is when they are chasing him out of 
the office. But just think what a joke this is on the boss! It puts him in a 
position where he has to sweep out his own office or hire some other fellow 
to do it. 

I once hired and fired a fine young fellow, all in one day. It was this way. 
I wanted a yard man. A fine young specimen of the genus homo presented him- 
self for the job. His name was Karl. He couldn't speak English very well, but 
was most willing. I explained his duties to him, told him he had to keep the 
premises clean, look after the horse and buggy, and make himself generally use- 
ful. He made me understand that he had done that all his life, and I left for 
my office, elated at having secured so valuable an acquisition to look after the 
place. That was early in the morning. I returned for lunch at one o'clock, and 
inquired about the new hired man, but no one had seen anything of him since 
morning. • 

After repeated vain calls, I went to the bam myself, and there beheld Karl 
standing behind the horse, holding a shovel, and contentedly smoking his pipe. 
"What are you doing there, Karl?" I asked. He explained that he had been 
standing there all the morning holding that shovel, in order to keep the horse 
from soiling the barn floor, 

I never saw Karl again. Next time I'll tell you something about a very pretty 
hired girl my wife once had. This revives painful memories, consequently I'll 
put it off as long as possible. 



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